A New Light
by FallenAngel2013
Summary: Weeks have passed since Leon rescued Alice from Umbrella Prime, the knowledge of what makes her a weapon a mystery to him. But Alice can't hide what she is forever and he eventually learns what makes her more important than everyone else. When she reveals her painful history, things between them change forever.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **_**Takes place after the events of my other Leon/Alice fanfic **_**"Unexpected Kindness" **_**and will contain references to that story. It ended up being a lot longer than I'd planned.**_

_**Leon's history has been edited to fit with the films.  
**_

_**For now, this is just a one-shot, but I'm considering turning it into an actual story. In case I opt to do that, I suggest you subscribe to story alerts.**_

**Disclaimer: **_**I do not own **_**Resident Evil**_**. I'm just playing in the sandbox.**_

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The Raccoon City incident had been the start of Leon S. Kennedy's career against Umbrella.

After just two weeks of working with the RPD the city fell victim to the deadly T-Virus, confirming the insane sighting of zombies that STARS officer Jill Valentine reported seeing in the Arklay mountains a few days earlier along with the information she'd gathered against Umbrella during her assignment. She'd been suspended when everything she said was true.

When it became clear that they were going to lose the city, most officers – minus the STARS – fell back and got out while they could. But Leon stayed behind, determined to find any survivors he could and ended up running into Ada Wong and Claire Redfield during her search for her brother, Chris, a member of STARS and Jill's partner. It pained him to tell her that he'd left Raccoon two days earlier, called back to active duty in the U.S Army. The redhead had looked like she wanted to kick herself for even coming into the infested city but held it together, though she did swear that she would kick her brother's ass when she caught up to him if they ever got out.

Against all odds, they did, and an hour later the city was destroyed. The government called it a meltdown of the nuclear reactor, be he wasn't falling for it. He knew that it was Umbrella that destroyed the city, but very few in the world wanted to believe it. Not even the testimonies of Jill and Carlos Olivera, a former operative for Umbrella, could convince the world of the truth.

Leon later joined the underground anti-Umbrella movement that Matt and Lisa Addison were once apart of. They did what they could to bring Umbrella's crimes into the light and fight them, but eventually the movement began to decay along with the rest of the world as the virus spread like a wildfire. Within two years a majority of the members were scattered throughout the world just trying to live to see the next day. But Leon still fought with his friends by his side, one of them Barry Burton, while Claire set out to gather what survivors she could and find her brother.

Just over a month ago, Ada tracked him down and he'd been shocked to find her alive. She'd died in his arms back in Raccoon City, or so he'd thought. Evidently, she was only unconscious and because he and Claire were in a hurry to get out he hadn't bothered to check for a pulse to be sure.

She took him to the White House, filled with more survivors than he'd seen in a long time, and the truth of who she was became evident when she introduced him to Albert Wesker. As it turned out she used to work for Umbrella as one of Wesker's top operatives and had been in Raccoon recovering Intel and monitoring the progression of the virus for him. Even after all that had happened to the world, all that Wesker had done, she was still loyal to the sadistic bastard, and to say that Leon felt betrayed was an understatement. They'd spent less than two hours together in Raccoon, a majority of the time spent trying to survive the undead, but in that short amount of time he'd come to care about her, only to find out four years later that she was working for Wesker.

Had it not been for Wesker cutting ties with Umbrella – now under the control of the Red Queen – Leon, Barry, and their two friends would have refused his insane proposal to work together. What made it impossible to walk away, however, was the weapon Wesker claimed to know about that could turn the tide of the war in humanity's favor. A weapon like that was too good to pass up, and so he agreed to work with Wesker. But according to Wesker, only one person truly knew of the weapon, and that person was a woman named Alice Abernathy. If they wanted the weapon, they had to rescue Alice from the Red Queen.

Since Ada was still believed to be loyal to the Red Queen, she was able to get back into the underwater base known as Umbrella Prime and lay the ground work for them to get in.

The plan hadn't worked out like he'd intended.

He made it back to the White House with Alice and Ada, along with Jill and a young deaf girl named Becky, but Barry, Luther, and his two other friends were killed. To top it all off, apparently Alice was the weapon. She was without a doubt a force to be reckoned with, but he didn't understand what made her so vital to the war against Umbrella.

He'd tried asking her on more than one occasion but she didn't share much about herself apart from her hate of Wesker. In general, they didn't say much to each other, and when they did speak it often wasn't friendly. She was still angry about him wanting to leave Becky behind in Umbrella Prime even after he'd apologized and explained that it was only because he feared that she would die while looking for the girl and he didn't want the death of his friends to be for nothing. If she understood his reasons, she gave no indication.

It wasn't until Christmas two weeks ago when he'd brought some gifts for Becky and one from him to Alice that the woman finally started to loosen up. She treated the quarter necklace he'd given her like a good luck charm of some sort and he never saw her without it. That was enough to make him smile fractionally considering he half expected her to shove it in the barrel of her shotgun as ammunition.

She still avoided answering his question about what made her a weapon and still reacted oddly when he insisted that she was more important than everyone else in the resistance. All he wanted to know was what made her more important.

Exactly one hour ago, he finally received a key piece to the puzzle that was Alice.

With his arm healed enough for him to be put back into action, Leon aided Alice, Jill, and a handful of soldiers in bombing an Umbrella warehouse on the outskirts of D.C where the flying BOWs known as Bats were roosting.

Their goal was to take out the first Bat created by Umbrella and the only one capable of breeding, appropriately dubbed the Queen. If they took her out, no more Bats could be spawned and they would eventually be killed off.

Everything had proceeded as planned up until he became separated from the group.

A soldier who had fallen behind due to an injury to his leg had been attacked by one of the Bats so Leon broke away from Alice and Jill to aid him, but in the process was struck in the chest and thrown to the other side of the room. He was all right for the most part, sustaining only bruise and cuts from the impact, but there was significant distance between him and the others. With the timer on the bombs counting down to zero, he'd yelled at the two women to get out while they could.

Jill looked torn but complied, helping an injured soldier out of the warehouse, but Alice wasn't leaving anyone behind to die.

Firing her shotguns loaded with quarters at the Bats, she bought him enough time to get back to his feet and run to her before they ran out to the waiting helicopter together, covering each others backs. But time had run out by the time they got there. The timer on his watch beeped as it reached zero and the explosives detonated.

The explosion was deafening and the heat of the fire reached them before the fire did.

Only they didn't burn.

To his sheer disbelief, Alice stood outside the helicopter, pupils dilated, and the fire went over them, around them, but never touched them. Only when the fire dissipated did her pupils return to normal and she would have collapsed had he not grabbed her before she hit the ground. He helped her into the helicopter but demanded that she tell him what the hell was going on.

Alice relented and agreed to tell him everything once they were back at the White House and she had a chance to reassure Becky that she was all right, it being the first time that she'd been away from the girl for more than a few hours.

He would have preferred her hurrying up with the girl so that he could get his answers, but Alice and Becky had an incredibly strong bond and the girl was a good kid so he gave them the time he needed. He trusted that Alice would come by his room and tell him the truth, not leave him in the dark.

Sitting at the foot of his battered full sized bed, he rotated his left arm, wincing a bit.

Were the circumstances normal, Leon would not have been permitted to go on any kind of mission that would cause stress to his left arm. It had been badly broken and he'd been in a sling up until four days ago. But things weren't normal and the second the medics thought his arm could handle the stress he was put back into action with the warning to go easy on the limb. Still, it was a good thing that he was right handed since his left was still sore, and he made sure to work his left arm more during his exercises to get its strength back up.

A knock on his door pulled him from his thoughts and he rose from his bed, crossed the short distance to the door, and opened it.

Standing on the other side in a black t-shirt, cargo pants, and boots, was Alice.

Without a word he stepped to the side, closing the door behind her when she came in.

Silence hung between them for a few seconds before he finally asked, "How's Becky?"

He might as well break the silence with a safe topic.

"Fine," she replied. "Happy we're all back and in one piece. Heather said that she was a nervous wreck the whole time we were gone."

Heather was the woman responsible for looking after the kids whenever their parents or guardians had a mission to attend to or were on duty. She was a nice woman and everyone trusted her with their children.

Leon just nodded in response.

Sighing, Alice leaned back against the single table in the room, crossing her arms. "I doubt you want to talk about Becky, so just ask me what you really want to know. Why am I the weapon? What happened at the warehouse? Go ahead and ask away."

"Just start from the beginning," he said after a moment, unable to pick one question to ask first.

She arched a thin brow. "It's a long story."

Leon shrugged. "I've got time."

A heavy sigh fell from Alice's lips and she looked across the room momentarily, searching for words that would explain everything. "I started out working for the Treasury, but later worked for Umbrella as the head of security in the underground facility called the Hive. The things they created with the T-Virus were sickening, so when I discovered that a woman named Lisa Addison was trying to get evidence for her brother that would bring down the corporation I offered her my assistance. But my partner learned of what I was doing and tried to steal the virus to sell on the black market. The virus got out and the Red Queen sealed the Hive, killing everyone inside. But they didn't stay dead. The T-Virus transformed them, and I went amnesiac when she vented a gas into the air at the safe house I was residing in that also served as an emergency entrance to the Hive. An Umbrella security team arrived to investigate, along with Matt Addison, and we all went into the Hive to find out why the Red Queen went homicidal. By the time we found out, we were trapped. Only myself and Matt escaped, but we were seized by Umbrella scientists and submitted to tests in their Raccoon City facility."

Leon never expected Alice to confess that she'd once worked for Umbrella, but it sounded like she'd still been one of the good guys while working for them if she was willing to hand over information to take down the corporation.

"What sort of tests?" he asked, unsure if he wanted to know.

"I was repeatedly injected with the T-Virus," she said matter-of-factly. "But the virus didn't change me – I changed the virus. I took all its 'positive' effects, but none of the negative ones. As a result, I can regenerate quickly, have heightened strength, agility, and stamina, and my senses are sharper. I can also sense the T-Virus in others – the undead, the BOWs, even the recently infected."

"That's how you were able to tell that we were being watched by the Bats in the warehouse."

She nodded. "Yeah, but that's just the start of everything," she said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I didn't get out of the facility until Raccoon was already infested, and I later teamed up with Jill, Peyton, a reporter named Terri Morales, and a man named LJ to find Charles Ashford's daughter, Angela. He was the man who created the fundamentals of the T-Virus in order to prevent his daughter from becoming a cripple, but Umbrella later took it from him and made it a weapon, though it was originally meant to be a skin cream to combat aging." A frown formed on her face, but she went on, "Peyton died, as did Morales, but we found Angela, and along with Carlos Olivera we made our way to the chopper that would take us out of the city. Unfortunately, we couldn't just up and leave. Turns out the chopper belonged to Timothy Cain and his personal BOW called Nemesis, a massive and deformed creature with a rocket launcher. We had a whole welcoming committee waiting for us, along with Angela's father who was being held at gunpoint for helping us."

"I think I know what you're talking about. I crossed paths with that Nemesis thing once back in Raccoon." At her questioning gaze, he added, "I was a cop back in Raccoon City. That's how I met Ada. She was on a mission for Wesker when Claire Redfield and I ran into her while trying to get out after Umbrella sealed the bridge."

"You know Claire?"

"Yeah, we became good friends after Raccoon. Why, do you know her?"

Alice nodded and said, "I met her a year or so back when she was heading a convoy searching for survivors. I met her brother later on, but…"

"But what?" he pressed.

"The ship the three of us were on was attacked by Umbrella forces." Grimly, she added, "I don't know if she and Chris made it."

A lump formed in Leon's throat and he struggled to just nod. "She's a strong woman, and Chris is a soldier. I'm sure they're safe."

"You're more optimistic than I am," she mumbled.

They lapsed into silence yet again, and he took the time to process what she'd told him. It really was a small world if they all knew Jill, Claire, and Chris, but had never met each other until Umbrella Prime. And the T-Virus was meant to be some anti-age cream? That obviously didn't work out for Umbrella and he couldn't see any woman slapping some T-Virus enhanced lotion onto their hands and face. He shuddered to think about what happened to the test subjects, but he figured he was better off not knowing.

"So, how'd you get out of the city?" he asked after a few more seconds, wanting to hear the rest of her story.

She swallowed thickly. "I was told to fight Nemesis, but I refused to use my abilities because I believed they made me a freak, so Cain shot Angela's father. I didn't want her or the others to be killed, so I fought Nemesis, only he… he wasn't just some monster – he was Matt. The T-Virus mutated him, and Cain turned him into a monster."

"Jesus," Leon murmured, shaking his head. That was a fate worse than death.

"Once I realized who he was, I couldn't kill him," Alice continued. "But something about what I said, about what was going on clicked in Matt's head and he stopped thinking like Nemesis and saved my life at the cost of his own. Jill, Carlos, LJ, Angela, and I got onto the helicopter but were unable to clear the blast when Umbrella dropped a bomb on the city. I was stabbed by some shrapnel and killed when it crashed. Somehow, Dr. Samuel Isaacs was able to bring me back but had done some more experimenting with the T-Virus that gave me telekinetic abilities. I escaped after coming to, but I was unaware that there were some cybernetics in my head linking me to Umbrella."

Nothing good could come from that.

Going on, she said quietly, a sad tone to her voice, "Sometime after my escape, I was working with Carlos, Jill, LJ, and some others when Isaacs decided to test out his control over me and ordered me back to him via the cybernetics in my head. I damn near killed one of my friends in the process, but the worst part was that Angela was in the truck I snatched to drive back to Isaacs in. When I got there, he said that she wasn't of use to him and ordered me to kill her." Shrugging sorrowfully, she added, "I tried to fight his control, but I was unable to. He told me to kill her so I did without hesitation."

Suddenly her bond with Becky made a bit more sense and Leon's chest tightened. Alice's actions had been out of her control and she killed Angela. When she'd gone after Becky, he'd assumed that it was just because she was a little girl who thought Alice was her mother, but now… "You couldn't protect Angela, so you're making up for it with Becky," Leon summed up quietly.

She turned her light blue eyes to him, lips forming a thin line, and she nodded. Taking a steadying breath, she walked over to the weapons he had laid out and busied herself with inspecting them while she continued, "I went off the grid after that – left Carlos and the others without a word, made sure I stayed out of sight of the satellite Umbrella was using to control me. People had a habit of dying around me, so I closed myself off to other humans. Being a freak didn't exactly make me likable anyways. I later ran into Claire, Carlos, and LJ, and I had to use my powers to save them from infected crows. Claire thanked me but didn't want me staying any longer than I had to because I'd scared her people. It wasn't until I told her about Arcadia that she let me stay."

"I heard some transmissions from Arcadia," Leon commented, recalling the transmissions and the survivors spreading rumors about the place. "Something about being free of infection, right?"

"I wish," she huffed. "It was a trap set up by Wesker to lure people in for his testing. By then I'd already freed myself from Umbrella's control, but Carlos and LJ were killed by that point. Prior to getting onto the ship _The Arcadia_, I met Chris and Luther. I thought Luther was killed by the Majini, so only Chris, Claire, and myself made it to the ship. That's when we discovered Wesker. He'd injected himself with the T-Virus but wasn't adapting to it as I had, so he was eating people to keep up his strength, and in his mind if he ate me he'd be exceedingly powerful." Cringing at the thought, she added, "He'd stripped me of my powers prior to me meeting Chris and Luther, but that didn't matter – he still wanted to 'consume' me. I managed to kill him without my powers, or I thought I had. Chris, Claire, others, and myself were later attacked, and that's how I ended up with the Red Queen."

Leon blinked at her.

All that she'd revealed was difficult to process. Something about her story didn't add up, however, and with a frown he pointed out, "You said Wesker stripped you of your powers. If that's the case, how did you keep us all from burning back there?"

Alice kept her back to him but he could see her stiffen at his question.

She bitterly replied, "When I went to meet with Wesker after getting back from Umbrella Prime he got the jump on me and injected me with the T-Virus. Said he needed 'the old me'." Taking a shaky breath, she shook her head and mumbled, "I finally thought I was human again, normal, but in less than a second he put me back in hell and turned me into a freak again."

Leon shut his eyes and sighed.

He knew Wesker was a cruel bastard, but this? It seemed like no matter what Alice did or where she went someone or something kept dragging her down, kept forcing her to fight, and kept pushing her to the brink. What she'd gone through in the years since even before Raccoon City would have broken most people. He wasn't sure he would be able to handle it all and be as sane as she was. Before running into Ada and Claire in Raccoon, he'd seriously thought about sticking his gun in his mouth just so he wouldn't have to deal with the horrific situation. If it weren't for the occasional scream of a survivor reawakening his desire to help, he probably would have done so and pulled the trigger.

Everyone had been put through a lot since the apocalypse started, but not everyone was infected with the T-Virus in the way Alice was, nor did most have to deal with what she'd had to deal with.

"You keep saying I'm more important than everyone else – than Becky, than you, everyone," Alice began, almost to herself with her hands braced against the table that held his weapons. Her posture, normally strong and sure, was hunched, her head lowered. "You're wrong. People die around me more often than they survive. Rain, Lisa, Matt, Angela, Carlos, Luther, others… People should stay away from me, not flock to me for help."

Staring at her, Leon was at a loss about what to do.

In the few weeks he'd known her he'd never seen her this vulnerable. It just wasn't her nature to let her guard down like this. She was the strong one on the base, the one people could count on. Even Wesker had to count on her. There was a lot of pressure on her to save everyone, to save the world. It finally occurred to him after the few weeks of knowing her that there was only so much pressure and responsibility that one person could take. Enhanced or not, Alice was still only human. Put too much weight on her shoulders and she would break.

With a heavy sigh, he stepped over to the woman at the table. There was no guarantee that she'd accept any form of comfort he had to offer, their relationship hardly what he'd call that of friendship, but he had to try and so he placed his calloused hand on her upper back.

Alice's brows creased and she stared at him for a moment with a look that made him think she was going to hit him. But then she sighed and accepted his comfort, leaning back into his hand.

"You can say you're not more important than anyone else all you want," he started, shaking his head at her when she opened her mouth to argue. "But do we stand a better chance with you, or without you?"

She swallowed and held his blue eyes for a long moment, contemplating his question but refusing to answer.

He took her refusal to reply as confirmation and didn't further press the issue. Instead, he reached forward and picked up the quarter that hung on a chain around her neck, turning it over between his fingers.

Staring at it, he smiled a bit. "I didn't expect you to actually wear it seeing as you despise me."

"I don't despise you," she argued, the corners of her mouth tugging upwards. "You're annoying and stubborn as hell, but you aren't all that bad."

His eyebrows shot up to his hairline, and he asked incredulously, "_I'm _annoying and stubborn?"

"Very much so."

"I think you're mistaking me for someone else," he retorted, staring at her intently.

She smacked his chest halfheartedly and stepped away from him, smiling genuinely. "I should get back to Becky."

"Yeah," he agreed. That little girl didn't like being away from Alice any longer than necessary. It was touching, honestly. As Alice made her leave he called, "I know we don't always see eye to eye, Alice, but if you ever need to get away or want to talk, my door's always open."

Alice looked back at him, her smile softening, and replied honestly, "I'll keep that in mind."

And then she was gone, walking down the crowded hallway to the room she shared with Becky, leaving Leon standing in his room seeing her in a whole new light.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_

**A/N: **_**So, should I continue this or end it here? I'm fine doing either, I'm just not sure which I should do so I figured I'd ask. If I do continue, the rating will be bumped up to M.**_

_**Continue? Yes or no?**_


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **_**I have decided to continue this story! I can't guarantee that all my updates will come this quick, I just wanted to get chapter 2 posted as soon as possible so that you all would know that I'm continuing this story.**_

_**In light of continuing it, the rating has been raised to **_**M**_** for occasional strong language, sexual content, violence, the works. Also, the genre has been changed to Romance.**_

_**And when Becky talks and signs, it'll be written like this… **_"I'm talking and signing," she signed tiredly_**.**_ _**She's always signing of course, but sometimes I might just write **_she asked_** or **_she exclaimed_** rather than say **_she exclaimed and signed_**. **_

_**When she's signing but not talking, it'll be written like this… **__I'm signing but not talking, _she signed_**.**_

_**That's probably common sense stuff, but I thought I'd explain Becky's dialog just in case anyone had any questions about it later on.**_

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Ever since returning from the Umbrella warehouse outside of D.C, Alice has received funny looks. She'd saved the lives of Leon, Jill, corporal Andy Lake, and the helicopter pilot, but that didn't stop the pilot and Lake from gossiping about what she'd done.

The mission to take out the Queen Bat had been a success, though a few good men died in the process, and they'd been about to exit the warehouse with just enough time to get to safety before the explosives went off when Leon was thrown clear across the room after he'd tried to help a soldier being ganged up on by Bats. He told her and Jill to go, to leave him behind since there wasn't enough time, but she couldn't do that.

After exchanging a knowing look with Jill, her blond friend reluctantly helped Lake to the helicopter while Alice stayed behind to provide cover fire for Leon. Too many good people had died, and she wasn't going to let Leon be added to the list. They weren't friends, not really, but he was something to her and that was all that mattered. He hadn't appeared entirely thrilled with her putting herself at risk for him, but he was grateful, that much was evident on his face. After a few precious minutes of firing on the Bats with her quarter loaded shotguns, he finally reached her and they slowly made their way out of the warehouse, backs pressed against one another, surrounded by the enraged Bats. They reached the helicopter in one piece, but time had already run out.

Alice didn't think when the fire and debris from the explosion came rushing towards them, she just reacted on instant, reaching out with the telekinetic powers the T-Virus gave her to create a sort of protective bubble around her, the others, and the helicopter. Almost all of her abilities could be played off as her just being well trained, her senses naturally sharp, and her ability to heal quickly could be attributed to first aid products that only she was privy to. It was all a lie, of course, her unique abilities being the direct result of the T-Virus bonding with her cells, but few hardly questioned her and typically only Jill and a few random soldiers worked with her. The telekinetics would be impossible to bull shit so she tried to only use the power when she was alone or with only Jill simply because she didn't want the attention it would bring.

None of that mattered when the fire came at them.

The use of her telekinetics left her drained, tired, and dizzy, and when she could finally drop her protective bubble her legs damn near gave way. Had Leon not caught her, she would have hit her head on the pavement. The scenario pinched her heart as she recalled when Carlos had done the same thing after she saved him and the others from the fire and crows. He'd been more affectionate about it, but the situation was painfully similar.

But now she had to deal with the strange looks she was receiving from everyone, had to hear the words "freak", "weirdo", "monster", and other names whispered when she walked by. No one asked her where the ability came from, however. No one, except for Leon.

After denying him an answer to his questions for weeks he was long overdue for an explanation, and after her little display there was no way she could hide the truth from him any long. So she spilled her guts and told him of the Hive, being infected with the T-Virus, Raccoon City, Wesker stripping her of her powers only to give them back to her because he needed the freak she used to be. She told him everything, even confessed that she saw herself as a freak once again and believed people were better off without her. She expected him to treat her as a leper once hearing that she was infected with the T-Virus, but instead she received comfort and more compassion than she had from anyone in a long time.

He'd thrown her for a loop, but she'd accepted his comfort without questioning it. When she left his room, it was on much better terms, especially after his offer to come to him if she needed to get away from it all or to just talk.

Leon had wanted to leave Beck behind but had apologized time and again. Perhaps it was time she finally let go of her grudge and move on.

Running her fingers through her short dark hair, she sighed and set the gun she was cleaning to the side, shutting her eyes when a nearby explosion shook the White House. Even in the bunker that served as the living quarters for the "high ranking personnel" wasn't immune to the tremble of the war going on outside.

The rooms everyone were given weren't huge but weren't tiny either. In her room, there was a full sized bed that had seen better days, a few foot lockers that acted as a dresser for her clothes, a table with two chairs, and a curtain cut off the portion of the room that served as Becky's bedroom, complete with a cot and two foot lockers. She'd told the girl more than once that she could sleep in the bed if she wanted, but Becky insisted that she liked having her own room so to speak.

She imagined that some of the rooms had been meant to be offices but had only been converted to living quarters when the need to keep certain people safe while they slept became an issue. Where they got the full beds and twins was beyond her, but she didn't ask. The bed was fairly comfortable so she didn't give a damn where it came from.

Beside her, Becky walked up and set a few rolls of quarters down on the table before she signed, "I'm done." Looking at the rolls, she then asked, "What do you use the quarters for?"

"They go into my shotgun," she explained, signing while she spoke. "Instead of hitting just one target, they hit multiple targets because the casing around the quarters explodes and they go in every direction."

Becky mouthed an "oh" before lining up the rolls neatly beside each other, double checking her work now that she knew what they were for.

Alice just smiled softly at her.

After getting to the White House, Alice explained everything to her – that she was a clone, that the placed they'd just come from wasn't real, about the apocalypse that had truck four years ago, everything, even admitted that she wasn't really her mother. It was a lot for a child to take in, but she thought that she deserved the truth.

For a while Becky didn't say a word to her for a whole day, just sat on her cot with a tattered book, only making a sound when she screeched during a nightmare, the first of many. Only when the girl started screaming did she wake her up, knowing that nightmares were her minds way of trying to process all that was going on. The next day she finally spoke told Alice that she was still her mommy and that she wanted to learn how to do the things she did – how to shoot, fight, everything. What innocence the girl had dissipated fractionally with her words, but in truth it was all things that she was going to have to learn sooner or later. Whether the girl truly understood everything was debatable, but Becky was a smart kid and caught on quick.

For now, she was teaching her about each gun model, a few basic fighting techniques, and had recently put her to work on rolling quarters and loading magazines with bullets – though she made it clear that she was never allowed to load the guns or even touch them without her permission. Oddly enough, Becky seemed to enjoy all the work and she always went around asking if she could help with anything. Heather called Becky her little assistant since she helped keep the younger kids entertained even though she didn't like being away from Alice for too long.

At a knock on her door, Alice called, "It's open."

Jill walked inside, dressed in a dark blue long-sleeved shirt with a deep V-neck, black cargo pants that sported a few tears, and combat boots – the typical wardrobe for the fighters who weren't soldiers.

"Hi, Jill," Becky signed with a smile.

"Hey, kiddo." Walking over to the table, she leaned on her hip against it and said, "It's getting dark. We should see just how many Bats survived the explosion shortly. Can't imagine they'll be in a good mood."

Alice nodded in agreement.

The Bats had an acute distaste of sunlight so even though it didn't hurt them they usually only came out at night. In about half an hour it would be dark out and the remaining Bats would be making their way towards the White House.

"We'll still have a lot left to kill, but there had to be at least a hundred if not more in the warehouse when it blew," Alice commented, leaning back in her chair. "At least now we don't have to worry about them multiplying. Should give our boys in the helicopters a chance to breath and sleep for a change."

"They'll be jumping for joy once the sky's finally clear," she agreed with a smile. Pulling out the other chair, she took a seat and joined her in cleaning the weapons. After a moment, she asked, "How'd your chat with Leon go?"

She sighed, picking up her SMG to clean. "A lot better than I thought it would. You never told me he'd been RPD."

"Honestly, it never occurred to me," she admitted. Smiling, she added, "He was only with the department for about two weeks before shit hit the fan, but he was pretty good, a little naïve at the time, but good and had a strong sense of right and wrong. I am amazed that he survived though. I mean, he was good, sure, but he was still a rookie."

"That's adrenaline for you," she commented, and then asked, "Two weeks, huh?"

"Yep."

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for a little while, each woman cleaning the weapons closest to them like it was the most normal thing in the world. For them, it was normal.

Glancing at Alice out of the corner of her eye, the former STARS officer asked, "So you said the conversation went well. How'd he take hearing that you're infected?"

"All right, I think. He didn't say anything about it, but he didn't go calling me a freak or look at me like one either," she replied, focusing on her weapon. He didn't say much in general, actually, but what he did say had boosted her spirits just a bit.

She wasn't going to tell Jill about the whole conversation or that she'd confessed to thinking of herself as a freak and not believing people should come to her for help, however, and she was certainly not going to about his offer for her to come by on occasion.

After Raccoon, the two women became close friends and even the gap in their friendship where Alice had left and Jill came under the control of the Red Queen didn't change it. If anything, it brought them closer. Both had survived the hell that was Raccoon City, both dealt with chaos beyond their control, both were still alive to fight, and both were looked at oddly by almost everyone at the base. Jill was a good friend, but Alice didn't gossip. And though she knew Jill wasn't the type to tease her, she would take Leon's offer the wrong way and would ask her about it. She didn't want to be interrogated.

Before the two could strike up a conversation that didn't have to do with what she and Leon had talked about, an explosion rocked the White House clear to the bunker with enough force to rattle everything that wasn't heavy or nailed to the floor.

Unlike the other explosions, that one felt very close.

Frowning and tense, Alice rose to her feet and signed to Becky, "Stay here until I get back."

Becky nodded, frightened.

Alice grabbed one of the handguns and Jill did the same before they ran out of the room to see what was going on.

Leon too was hurrying towards the steps that would take them to the ground floor, also armed.

"What's going on?" Alice asked, falling into step beside him.

"I'm not sure."

Concerned that the undead and BOWs had somehow broken through the gates surround the White House, she picked up the pace and quickly scaled the steps to the main floor before taking the stairs upstairs.

Just as she reached the top of the staircase, she ran into the last person she cared to see.

"What's happening?" she demanded.

Hardly inclining his head in her direction, Wesker made his way towards the steps to the roof and replied coolly over his shoulder, "In light of your attack on the Umbrella warehouse, the Bats have attacked sooner than anticipated with far greater aggression. It seems they know that you've doomed them."

Alice doubted that and suspected that it was more because they'd attacked and killed their Queen. Or perhaps the Red Queen was able to control them and sent them in for a brutal fight. She really didn't know, but upon reaching the roof her jaw slackened as she stared out at the chaos.

If Wesker was right about anything it was their aggression.

The Bats were relentless in their attacks on the helicopters and one lay in fire within the perimeter – likely the cause of the explosion that shook the bunker so powerfully. The only thing about the situation that filled her with hope was the fact that with each Bat that was shot down none took its place. At this rate they might only have to deal with the occasional Bat within two weeks or less.

A pungent, foul smell reached her nose and she grimaced. Looking down at the totaled helicopter, she saw a handful of burning corpses, some from the aircraft while others had been unable to clear the area in time. Never would she grow used to the smell of burning flesh, much less the rotted odder emitting from the undead beyond the perimeter, but she could hide her reaction fairly well. While her stomach churned at the stench, her face only let slip a frown after she grimaced.

"Get me some men on those turrets!" shouted a soldier as he fired at some Bats swarming one of the helicopters. "Don't let them take the chopper!"

Soldiers rushed to the guns and hastily fired on the Bats, their aid coming just in time for the men in the air.

"We have to help them," Alice decided, scanning the roof for something to use.

Wesker looked at her blankly, appraising her. "Do you know how to pilot a helicopter, or would you like to waste ammunition not dedicated solely towards warding off the Bats?"

Alice glared at him and replied, "I'm sure our boys up there wouldn't mind a few bullets wasted for them."

"Perhaps," he admitted coolly. "But they knew the risk when they agreed to pilot. Now, be a good girl and cease your desire to use up our ground ammunition and return inside. Your talents are still needed and it will do me no good if you were to perish before your due time because you needlessly drew attention to yourself."

Hands balling into tight fists, Alice took a menacing step towards Wesker only for Leon to grasp her shoulder tightly, keeping her back.

She made to snap at him, but before she could he leaned in and whispered, "Save it for when you're in private. These soldiers need to believe you two are working together for the sake of moral."

It wasn't the first time she'd nearly gone postal on Wesker since arriving, but it was the first time Leon physically held her back. As much as what he said made sense, she wanted to fuck moral and rip out Wesker's throat.

He felt her tense like coil ready to spring and he tightened his grip fractionally. "They need to concentrate on the Bats, not you getting into it with Wesker. Let it go!" he hissed quietly.

Sure enough, a few soldiers were glancing back and forth between her and the ruthless blond, wondering if they were going to fight and who they should side with if they did. With their attention split, they were at even greater risk.

Grinding her teeth, Alice yanked away from Leon's hand and went back inside with him and Jill following behind her.

"Most of these men trust you more than Wesker, regardless of what happened in the warehouse," Leon said as he followed her, attempting to cool her temper. "But right now we all need Wesker to be in charge, or at least believe he's in charge. He has more knowledge about Umbrella and more resources than anyone else."

"He's right, Alice," Jill insisted. "I'm all for blowing his brains out, but Wesker is a necessary evil right now. You know that."

She did know that, she just didn't like it.

Stopping in the vacant hallway of the bunker, she sighed and said, "I can play nice, but the moment he gives me a good reason to rip his head off I'm killing him. People like Wesker don't change their ways – the moment he thinks he can handle things on his own we're all as good as dead."

"I agree," Leon replied. "And when the time comes, I'll have your back."

Alice turned her attention to him and saw the utmost sincerity in his blue eyes. But more than that, she saw trust. When Wesker turned on her or all of them, Leon would help her fight him. It confirmed for her that he didn't harbor any ill will towards her being an infected freak. The sight was comforting to say the least.

Jill nodded, glancing back and forth between the two. "So will I."

"But for now," he added reluctantly. "We need him."

"Yeah," Alice muttered angrily, shaking her head.

Never would she have thought she actually needed Wesker's help and he her's. She just hoped that she was ready for the fight that would inevitably come once he decided he didn't need her.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **_**If at any point it seems like Leon and Alice's growing friendship/relationship is evolving too fast, just remember that they're essentially living together in the White House compound and see each other constantly every single day. Things are bound to happen a little quicker than if they only saw each other occasionally throughout a few days or a week. Not to say that I'm going to rush things, I'm just pointing that out.**_

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Each and every day was becoming more and more hazardous with each passing second, but it wasn't the abominations created by the viruses that had Leon on edge – it was Alice and Wesker.

He was sure that they'd had to have gotten into a physical altercation at least a few times by now. The first time he'd realized they'd actually fought was three days after returning from Umbrella Prime. He'd been walking by the Oval Office when he and everyone else in the room heard a loud bang as something or someone slammed into the wall. When the guard standing post outside the office opened the door to see what was going on, both Alice and Wesker were facing each other, waiting for the other to make a move while a wood table lay in pieces at their feet.

The moment he noticed that they were being watched, Wesker regained composer almost immediately and coolly ordered Alice out of the office as if they'd simply had a miner argument. Alice had looked ready to pull her gun on him but stormed out with a slight limp in her step.

There were other times sounds of a fight had been heard, but that was the most memorable instance for Leon, that and last night's incident.

He'd been positively certain that had he not held Alice back she would have pounced on Wesker in full view of the soldiers. Just because everyone knew the two hated each other and fought brutally in private didn't mean that they needed to see it. The scene would have brought down their spirits even more and would cause them to lose focus on the situation at hand – which had been killing the Bats and keeping them off the helicopters.

Only when she walked away did he begin breathing again, having been worried that he and Jill would have to break up a fight. Both he and Jill had left her alone for the rest of the evening after talking to her for a few minutes.

She was right about one thing, though – a confrontation with Wesker was going to happen eventually, because men like Wesker didn't change their ways.

Raking his fingers through his dark blond hair, he sighed, wandering down the hallway after checking in with some of the soldiers about their weapons situation. They had enough weapons and ammo for about three weeks, four to five if the Bat threat diminished, but sooner or later they would have to go searching for more. He'd rather get a team together for the search before the weapons became an issue, but they had to locate a destination that would house weapons and that would likely be a functioning Umbrella facility. Later on, he would bring the issue to Wesker's attention, but only _after _he talked to Alice about it.

Wesker would send men in without a single care about their welfare so long as they got the weapons, while Alice would be more careful. She wasn't the type to throw people away, and that was why he was searching for her now.

He'd already stopped by her room but neither she nor Becky were there. If the girl wasn't there that either meant Alice was teaching her something or that she was with Heather. Because it was still early in the morning he opted to stop by Heather's room first rather than go searching all over the place.

Walking down the hall to the underground infirmary that Heather maintained, he stepped inside, the strong smell of antiseptic filling his lungs. It was probably the cleanest room within the perimeter. On a few cots lay the more severely injured soldiers, while those with more manageable injuries were on sleeping bags on the floor. In a perfect world, they'd all be on a gurney, but all they had available were sterilized cots, sleeping bags, maybe a pillow or two. One thing they did have that was perfect in his mind was the first class treatment of Dr. Heather O'Brian.

She'd been a trauma surgeon in New York prior to the world going to hell, and once the undead were everywhere she extended her help to the military struggling to stay functional. The only reason she found her way to DC was because her husband, Simon, was a general who had been sought out by Wesker. When he came to the White House, she did too, along with their nine-year-old son Tyler. Everyone was happy to have Heather there because she genuinely cared about the people she took care of and knew everyone by name.

"Leon!"

Looking up from the injured soldiers, he saw Becky standing in the back doorway to Heather's makeshift office, smiling.

"Hey," he called, looking behind him when a nurse dropped something. "Where's Heather?" When he looked back at Becky, her brows were crinkled together in confusion, having not seen his lips to read them. "Where's Heather?" he asked again, facing her.

"She's in here," she replied, inclining her head towards the office behind her, unable to use her hands because she was holding handfuls of gauze, bandages, and the like. Hurrying past him, she handed the items off to the nurse in the front of the room.

Leon walked into the office and found Heather searching through some drawers, cursing under her breath.

"Lose something?" he ventured to ask.

"Yes, almost all of my medical supplies," she snapped angrily, kicking the drawer shut when she didn't find what she was looking for. A few of the kids she was watching looked up from what they were doing and she gave them an apologetic smile before she turned her attention to Leon. "I have enough supplies to last for a week, two if I'm lucky. If it weren't for Simon insisting that we needed supplies, Wesker wouldn't be having a team go out to scavenge some. As it is, he's not sending anyone out for two more days."

He sighed irritably.

Medicine, medical equipment, and supplies were just as important as weapons, if not more. The soldiers, analysts, everyone had to be in relatively good health.

Understanding the need for supplies, he offered, "I can get a team together to go search later today if you'd prefer."

"Oh, you needn't," she assured him, the wrinkles around her eyes becoming more prominent when she gave him a genuine smile, his offer brightening her grim mood. "I might complain, but Simon has assured me that all will be taken care of. Wesker needs him and his men on his side."

Leon wanted to add "for now" to her sentence but thought better of it. Instead, he merely sighed and said, "If you need anything, just let me know. By the way, you know where Alice is?"

Heather nodded. "She dropped Becky off a short while ago so that she could go to the cafeteria. Looked like she had some frustration she needed to vent."

The cafeteria had been turned into a makeshift gym with handmade punching bags, a few weights made from faulty equipment, and a few other things. After last night, he wouldn't be surprised if she'd punched a hole clean through one of the bags.

"Thanks, Doc," he said, turning to go track down Alice.

"Leon, one more thing," she began, bringing him to a stop. Walking up to him, she spoke in a hushed tone, "Is it true? – what the others are saying about her?"

"Depends on what they're saying."

She explained quietly so that no one would overhear and butt into the conversation with unwanted opinions, "Lake has been telling the other soldiers that she used some sort of telekinetic power to protect the helicopter. As far as he is concerned, he believes that she is some Umbrella monstrosity who only saved you all so that she could gain everyone's trust."

He sighed, hating Lake for his constant desire to gossip and be an asshole. The fact that he was always sucking up to Wesker made him like the younger man even less. Apparently Lake was in the first military squad Wesker recruited for the resistance, instilling a twisted sort of hero worship in the man.

Trusting Heather not to spread rumors, he nodded and replied quietly, "She's infected with the T-Virus. I don't think she's contagious, and she's not handling the infection like any of us would, but it's the cause of her abilities."

"Poor thing," Heather murmured sadly, tucking a lock of graying light brown hair behind her ear. "No wonder she keeps to herself."

Alice didn't tend to associate herself with anyone besides Jill and Heather. For a while he'd just assumed that it was because of her lack of trust towards Wesker, but now he realized that she distanced herself to keep people safe and probably to keep others from learning that she was infected, though now her excuse of keeping a distance would likely be an effort to avoid ridicule now that everyone knew that _something_ was different about her.

A moment later, he became nervous that Heather would say something, so he asked, "You won't –"

"I'm not one to gossip, Leon," she interrupted, reading his expression. "It twists the truth and causes more harm than good. No, her secret is safe with me." A curious expression fell over her aging but still lovely features and she watched him for a moment. "Does anyone else know?"

"Just Jill and Wesker, but that's because she knew Jill from before the world went to hell. As for Wesker… what doesn't he know?" He opted not to tell her that he was the cause of her getting her abilities back. "She doesn't want everyone to know just how… different she is."

"And yet she told you."

He shrugged. "After what happened at the warehouse, I wanted answers."

"Hmm." Reading something between the lines that was beyond him, she turned back to her mission of finding whatever it was she was looking for in her office.

Uncertain of what was going through the woman's mind and figuring he didn't want to know, he turned back towards the door, waving bye to Becky as he passed her even though she was too busy helping the nurse arrange supplies to notice.

The walk from the infirmary to the cafeteria-turned-gym wasn't very far. The bunker, while meant to house the President and his people comfortably in a time of crisis, was hardly big. Apart from the President's room which Wesker had claimed, there were only a dozen spare rooms – most of which having been converted to bedrooms – the infirmary, cafeteria, war room, and a bathroom with about four stalls and six showers running cold water.

After living out of a jeep and truck with Barry and their friends, the bunker had seemed like a palace to Leon, but after a while the walls started closing in and he realized just how crowded it really was.

Privacy had been a luxury on the road, but it went out the window within the compound. Everyone knew everybody's business, the bathrooms weren't gender specific so the women usually tried to claim all the showers first to avoid being scrutinized by their male comrades, relationships became everyone's business, and it was all enough to drive someone up the wall.

All in all, Leon almost preferred living on the road.

Passing a few soldiers walking out of the cafeteria, he heard one of them whisper something under his breath about "her not being right" and figured that they were talking about Alice.

He would have to have a chat with Lake later on about the little rumor he'd started.

Walking inside, he found the woman on his mind furiously beating the shit out of a punching bag in the far left corner of the room dressed in a black bra, sweatpants, and boots, the tattered bag swinging wildly with each punch and kick, the chain straining. The bags themselves were pretty sturdy, as were the chains they hung from, but he imagined that the force behind Alice's attacks were more powerful than those of the average soldier.

With that in mind, he made his way over to her.

She didn't seem to notice him at first, but when the bag swung hard in his direction and he grabbed it, she started and stared at him.

"Something the bag said?" Leon asked, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Alice shook her head at his attempt but a smile tugged at her lips nonetheless and she took a second to catch her breath. "Would you rather I beat on the person who did say something?" she asked, wiping the sweat from her face with her hand.

"Depends on the day," he replied, letting go of the bag. "You still pissed?"

She huffed. "Am I that transparent?"

"No, but if you keep beating the bag like you were, you're going to break it. How long have you been in here anyways?"

"About an hour, give or take," Alice replied, walking over to where she had a canteen of water sitting on the floor. "I should probably go see what Becky's up to."

"I just came from the infirmary looking for you," he said. "It looked like Heather has her helping the nurse take inventory or restock the place. She's doing fine."

"Yeah, she likes helping Heather." Taking a drink from her canteen, she then asked, "You said you were looking for me?"

Leon nodded and replied, "Yeah, I wanted to run something by you before I brought it to Wesker's attention."

Expression turning serious, Alice set her canteen down and leaned back against the wall. "I'm all ears."

"I just met with Gibson about our weapons situation. We're fine for now, but in three weeks maybe five if the Bats thin out, we won't be," he explained. "Now, I don't know about you, but I'd rather deal with the situation before we find ourselves in trouble. There are a few Umbrella facilities in neighboring states, the closest being in New York. I'm not sure what kind of facility it is or if it would even have weapons, but if it doesn't then there's the one in Ohio. Either way, I'd rather it'd be us and a few soldiers going than some random men Wesker picks out."

"Because he won't care if they all come back alive so long as he gets the weapons," Alice added with a sigh."

"Exactly, which is why I came to you first. You won't throw soldiers away for the sake of the mission."

She nodded mutely, thinking over it all. "When exactly would you want to do this?"

Hoping that meant that she was all for it, he replied, "By week's end at the earliest, while we still have plenty of ammunition and weapons."

"Week's end, huh?" she said more to herself, adjusting her quarter necklace, the currency sticking to her sweaty chest.

As she thought it over, Leon noticed a long scar over her collarbone. Given that the T-Virus gave her regenerative abilities the injury had to have happened at least four years ago before she was infected, maybe while she was working for Umbrella. What was it she did before working for the corporation? Had she always worked for them? He had no idea.

"I'll tell Wesker what we're going to do when we all get together for a meeting this evening," Alice said at last, dragging his eyes away from her scar and back to her face. "I know how to pilot a helicopter so it's not like he has to order the pilots to take us to a facility. If he doesn't like it, he can shoot me."

If Alice set her mind to something she saw it through and God help anyone who got in her way. Had Leon not stepped aside when she told him to get out of her way so she could go find Becky, he was willing to bet that he would have either been shot in the leg or kicked in the groin. He was relieved he'd been wrong and that she had returned along with the kid.

A loud wolf whistled echoed from the other side of the room and the two looked to see a few soldiers walking into the room to use some weights, one of them having spotted Alice wearing nothing up top but her bra. Most of the men were fairly decent, good guys, but Leon recognized the guy who had whistled as the one man whom every woman had an issue with because of his unwanted advances.

It had not gone unnoticed to Leon that Alice was exceptionally beautiful, not even in the underwater base of Umbrella Prime had he failed to notice. He would be a fool not to admit it if she or anyone else asked him for his opinion, but he could voice his thoughts about her appearance without being a jackass about it. There was a difference between flirting and complimenting, and sexual harassment. According to Trenton there was no difference and he didn't care if his advancements and behavior was unwanted or not. Maybe it was because Leon was older than Trenton by a few years, maybe it was because his mother would beat his ass as a kid if he wasn't respectful, but he firmly believed that just because the world had gone to hell didn't mean that respect had to go along with it.

Scowling at the younger man across the room, Leon then searched around and picked up Alice's black t-shirt from the floor, handing it to her, and she gratefully accepted the shirt while throwing a chilly glare at Trenton.

"I wouldn't tempt him too much," Leon warned, getting back what they'd been talking about. "Wesker might need you alive, but he only has so much patience. Cause more trouble than you're worth –"

"He'll cancel my contract," she finished, slipping into her shirt. "You're not telling me anything I don't already know."

"Still, a reminder now and then doesn't hurt. You don't exactly keep a cool head around Wesker."

"If you knew him like I do, you wouldn't have a cool head either," she retorted irritably, picking up her canteen.

"Never said you didn't have a reason," he stated, not wanting to get into a fight with her. "But like I said yesterday – save the fighting for his office, or better yet play nice."

She huffed quietly. "Play nice."

"You did say that you could last night," Leon reminded her.

"And provided I have a punching bag to come to after meetings with him, I can," she assured him, tapping her knuckles against the bag.

Seeing his opening to lighten the mood, Leon smirked and scraped at a worn spot on the bag, then said, "I don't know, keep punishing the thing like you are and you'll have to turn some poor bystander into a punching bag. Maybe Trenton over there."

The idea of beating Trenton to a pulp, however wrong, brought an amused smile to her face and she replied, "If he doesn't watch himself I'll retire the bag and string him up instead."

"I'll lend you a chain to hang him from," he assured her, receiving a brighter smile from her.

"I think he knows we're talking about him," she speculated, nodding in the direction of the young man who was still smirking but looking at them funny. "I should probably get out of here before he actually does do something to make me string him up." Retrieving her gun and its holster from where it had been resting on the floor, she turned back to Leon and asked, "Walk with me?"

Nodding, he followed her out of the cafeteria and down the hall towards her room. He wasn't sure why he was going there with her but he didn't ask, figuring she had something else she wanted to discuss.

After a short walk they arrived and stepped inside.

He closed the door behind him while Alice set her gun on the table.

"Be honest with me, Leon," she began, turning to face him with a worried look on her face. "How are we looking long-term?"

"Honestly?" Sighing, he leaned back against the door and shrugged. "I don't see any of us lasting longer than a year unless there's some significant turn in the war. From what I've gathered, there were almost two-hundred people here at the beginning of Wesker's resistance and the perimeter extended another twenty-yards in either direction, but due to weaknesses in the previous wall everyone had to pull back and rebuild a new one – the one we have now – and had it finished just before the old one broke. By that point a good fifty people died and more people have died since until I'm not sure if even one-hundred people are here anymore.

Having you with us gives us an advantage, but unless we make a major strike against the Red Queen having you here won't matter. Ending the Bat threat is great and will clear the sky, but there's still the never-ending onslaught of the undead and BOWs outside the perimeter. If that wall breaks now or at any point in the future, we're fucked. The White House is great, but it's hardly a fortress and the bunker can't house everyone and trying to go on the offensive from down here would be suicide."

Alice sifted her fingers through her hair and nodded. "Yeah, I figured that. Eventually, we're going to have to relocate to someplace more secure, but unless we cripple the Red Queen somehow there won't be much of a point in moving."

"Others have brought it to Wesker's attention, but he likes the symbolism of the White House," he commented bitterly. Symbolism meant nothing if everyone was dead.

"That's not surprising," she replied with equal bitterness. "But he won't be able to deny the need to move eventually, and if we can find a place sturdy enough to house us all more securely it'll be hard to use symbolism as an excuse to stay put."

"Let's hope you're right."

"Either way, it wouldn't hurt to do some house hunting on our weapons run," Alice said.

"House hunting?" he repeated, shaking his head slightly. "That's one way to put it, I guess."

"I could call it fortress hunting, but house hunting sounds better," she explained with a shrug. Looking at her watch, she added, "I should go get Becky. I told her when I finished my workout I'd show her how to take apart and clean a handgun."

Her words struck a cord and Leon sighed, "Another reason this war needs to be finished. Kids shouldn't have to learn those things."

"On that," Alice began with a low expression. "We can definitely agree."

Opening the door for her, Leon let her walk out first before following and closing the door. Looking down the hall then back at her, "I'll see you at the meeting tonight, Alice."

"See you then," she said, giving him a nod. The corner of her mouth curved upwards in the slightest smile and she went down the hall to retrieve Becky.

Leon watched her go and silently prayed that there would be no trouble at the meeting. If things didn't go Alice's way, there was no telling what was going to happen.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: **_**This chapter was surprisingly difficult to write given that I didn't know where to start. I'm amazed I finished this chapter in the time that I did to be honest because I have the worst flu I have ever had, I swear to God.**_

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"_If Lieutenant Gibson says the weapons and ammunition will hold for three weeks or more, there is no need to rush off and retrieve more," Wesker said, dismissing the concerns of Alice and Leon about the weapons situation._

"_So we should just sit on our hands until the only weapons we have are our fists because there's no ammunition for the guns?" Alice demanded angrily. _

_He leveled her with a patient look and replied, "When the situation becomes more dire, I assure you I will dispatch a team to investigate possible weapon caches. But to go to a heavily guarded Umbrella facility for weapons is a waste of time when we can more easily raid the remnants of military outposts."_

"_Then we go on the offensive while we're at it," Leon commented, moving to stand beside Alice. "You said that the facility in New York would be the one that would have a substantial amount of weapons, but that it was also a key communications hub for the Red Queen and her clone forces along the eastern seaboard. If we go there we can get all the weapons we need and take out her link to the clones at least temporarily."_

"_A strike against the New York facility would be a major win for us," Wesker agreed thoughtfully. "But I do not wish to destroy the facility."_

_Alice sighed. "Why am I not surprised?"_

_Stepping forward, dressed in high heeled boots, black dress slacks, and a blood red blouse with her choker ribbon, Ada said, "Certain clones are fitted with the P30 Scarab, such as the one that was on Valentine's chest, and are placed as chief security officers, operatives, and super soldiers within the Red Queen's clone army, but a majority of the clones have cybernetics implanted in their brains allowing for direct control, similar to what was in your head, Alice, before you managed to break control. They can receive orders at anytime from anywhere in the world. One moment they can be the average soldier, and the next they can receive a direct order to make a strike against us." Glancing at everyone before looking directly at Alice, she added, "The Red Queen may be an AI, but she is still a machine. With the right equipment, we can block her connection to the New York facility and any clone on and near the eastern seaboard will be up for grabs."_

_Clasping his hands behind his back, Wesker paced back and forth with a sense of calm that pissed Alice off even more than she already was, and he said, "If we can seize control of the facility, we will be able to reprogram the cybernetics in a significant amount of clones and force them to serve us. The Red Queen will have her clones, and we will have ours."_

_Hardly all right with the plan, Alice questioned, "These clones would have been imprinted with memories, right?"_

"_That's correct."_

"_Then as far as they would be concerned, we'd be taking their free will away," she argued. "They're the enemy, but they've been imprinted to be happy with the side they're on and are loyal. Forcing them to join us by controlling their actions is no different from when Umbrella was controlling my actions and Jill's."_

"_I'm inclined to agree," Jill commented, giving her friend a nod. "I wouldn't wish what I had to go through under the Red Queen's control on anybody. It'd be better to just wipe everyone out than play God by forcing them to do what you want." _

_The only clones who were innocent in the whole thing were the ones still in "storage" the ones who were like Becky, who believe their just normal people. The ones who were working for Umbrella were the enemy, plain and simple._

_Wesker sighed, frustrated with their persistence, and turned his back to them to look at the security footage of what was going on outside with the Bats. "Regardless of your opinions, the decision has been made. Once I believe we have the resources, Alice will lead a team into the facility so one of our tech specialists can rewrite the coding for the cybernetics, giving us control."_

That was about the time Alice stormed out of the office.

Had it just been her in there she wouldn't have had a second thought about throwing a punch, but Leon, Jill, Ada, two generals, and one commander had been present. She didn't want them to get in the crossfire, so she left. Soldiers, technicians, analysts, everyone jumped out of her way as she stormed down the halls and stairs, curious but smart enough not to get in her way.

Becky was already asleep by the time she returned, allowing Alice to seethe and pace from one end of her room to the other with her hands clenched in tight fists without worrying the girl. What she wanted to do was throw something, to vent her rage by screaming, but as it was she was having difficulty keeping her telekinetics in check. The lighter objects in the room were shaking, threatening to rise into the air, and if she let go and screamed or threw something she'd probably have various objects floating around, perhaps a chair or the table, maybe even the bed or Becky and her cot. She didn't need that headache.

The fact that Wesker didn't want to send her, Leon, or anyone out to get weapons and ammunition because there "was no rush" was infuriating, but to hear that he wanted to take control of an Umbrella facility and virtually enslave the clones damn near made spoke come from her ears.

From what she learned in the meeting, the New York facility was one of the main communications hubs in the nation. There were dozens all over the US but only five were key to the Red Queen's network. If the one in New York was taken out, communications between the Red Queen and her forces would be virtually nonexistent along the eastern seaboard which should give the resistance a significant edge given that they were located in, obviously, DC.

But of course they would not be destroying the facility. No, Wesker wanted to control it.

The idea of forcing clones with imprinted memories to attack the Red Queen and her forces didn't sit well with Alice. They were clones, but they had memories that led them to believe that they were with Umbrella because they wanted to be. She couldn't enslave them the way she'd once been enslaved.

In the back of her mind, she recalled Angela staring at her with wide, frightened blue eyes as she leveled her gun to her head just before pulling the trigger. Alice was unable to do anything – she couldn't blink, couldn't lower her gun, couldn't even cry though her heart had been breaking. The clones may be the enemy, but she couldn't do to them what Umbrella did to her.

Blunt nails biting into her palm, she slammed her fist into her table hard enough to splinter the wood. She looked back at Becky, making sure she hadn't woken her up though she wouldn't have heard the sound. The girl continued to sleep soundly so Alice turned her attention to her bleeding knuckles. The skin began mending itself almost immediately and she tried not to double over with pain.

Whenever a wound healed it brought with it agony as something beneath her skin slithered like a snake, mending the broken skin from the inside out. It hurt like hell, but she'd had worse injuries that hurt far more when they healed. She remembered being in an army surplus down in Raccoon City when she was first brought to her knees by the pain of the wounds she sustained from being strung up like a science project and from walking around barefoot healing. So help her, she'd seen something moving beneath her skin and it damn near made her ill. That was when she first realized that Umbrella had definitely done _something _to her.

Flexing her hand after it had healed, she took notice that the items that had merely been shaking dropped to the floor after having been levitated during her small outburst.

She had to get out of the confined space and away from Becky until she calmed down.

"_I know we don't always see eye to eye, Alice, but if you ever need to get away or want to talk, my door's always open."_

Leon's offer rang loud and clear in her mind and she bit her lower lip thoughtfully, looking back at Becky and then to the door. If she woke up to find her gone, she'd be scared to death, but then again she'd be equally scared if she saw Alice punching something and having a telekinetic breakdown. Besides, she was a sound sleeper. So long as no one gave her a shake, she wouldn't wake up.

Mind made up, she stepped out of her room, forgoing bringing her gun like she normally did when she left, and walked at a quick pace towards Leon's room.

She wasn't sure if she could call him a friend, but maybe he was one or was starting to be. Someone could go from being a comrade and fellow human to a friend in the blink of an eye as she learned from personal experience. Either way, he'd offered her a place to go if she needed to get away, and she needed to get away now.

He was probably in just as sour a mood as she was and their combined anger would likely cause more harm than could, but she needed… something – someone who knew what she was but didn't judge her, someone she could trust, a room that wasn't the prison her own had become, or maybe it was companionship she needed? She really didn't know what it was that she needed.

Alice hated feeling lost and not in control, but that was exactly how she felt in the White House, exactly how she felt now that she was once again infected.

Reaching the door to Leon's room, she raised her hand but stopped just short of knocking when she heard the raised voices of two people arguing inside.

"I don't give a damn!" Leon shouted. "Letting that facility stay standing is a mistake!"

"Think about it, Leon," argued a very frustrated Ada Wong. "If we take control of that facility, of the clones along the eastern seaboard, Wesker will have an army to use against the Red Queen. The soldiers you value will be given a chance to rest."

"With clones at his disposal, the soldiers I value won't be needed anymore and Wesker will throw them to the wolves!" he retorted angrily.

He had a point.

If Wesker had a clone army he wouldn't need the soldiers and would likely find an excuse to get rid of them. He might say that he wants to save the human race, but if he could find a way to be in total control he'd sacrifice lives.

Although she knew she shouldn't eavesdrop, she leaned against the wall beside the door and continued listening. The halls were virtually empty anyways so it wasn't like anyone would call her out on it.

Ada was silent for a moment before she replied coldly, "Perhaps, but the clones will be utterly loyal and devoted provided he remains in control of them. You cannot tell me that even half the soldiers would choose him over Alice. We need loyalty to win this, and she's done nothing but divide it!"

"That's because the soldiers know she won't leave them to rot like Wesker will when he doesn't need them!" he snapped back. "And as far as I'm concerned, there is no competition – Alice is the one who should be leading the resistance."

The agent sighed. "She is talented, I won't deny that, but she doesn't know enough about Umbrella and the Red Queen to lead the resistance. It's her powers and hate of Umbrella that makes her useful. Were it not for her ability to bond with the T-Virus the way she does, we would not have gone to retrieve her," she said icily.

"I don't recall you being this cold in Raccoon," Leon observed bitterly.

"That was then," she replied, an almost sad note to her voice. "This is now."

Silence followed and footsteps neared the door but Alice made no effort to move.

Yanking the door open, Ada stepped out and frowned when she saw her standing there.

"How's it going?" she asked casually.

Jaw tense, Ada ignored her and walked down the hall.

Alice pushed off the wall and stepped into the room just as Leon started walking over to close it. "Trouble in paradise?" she asked, nudging the door shut with her boot.

He snorted irritably. "You could say that. How much did you hear?"

"Enough to know that I'm not the only one pissed about the meeting," she replied, taking note of the worn expression on his face. "Anything happen after I left?"

"No. Wesker dismissed us all a minute later," he said and sat down on the foot of his bed, tired. Rubbing his hand down his face, he then asked, "Did you need something?"

She shook her head and replied, "I remembered what you said about coming by if I needed to, so I decided to take you up on your offer."

"Afraid I won't be great company right now."

"When are you ever?"

He blinked at her, but when he saw that she was smirking at him and wasn't serious he chuckled dryly. The tension was still there, but was not as thick as it had been when she walked in, and he eventually asked, "Everything okay?"

She shrugged and took a seat in one of the chairs at his table.

Tapping her fingers against the table, she said tightly, "I'm going to destroy that facility. I refuse to let Wesker use it to control the clones. Nothing good can come of that."

"I'm glad," he said sincerely, a look of relief on his face. "But Wesker will send people with you to make sure you don't destroy it – Ada, Lake, others."

That much she knew and she wasn't sure how to get around that little detail without killing anyone. "I'll figure something out. I just need you to be there when I'm ready."

"You don't have to worry about me. I said I had your back and I meant it," he assured her.

That relieved her more than he could know and she gave him a small smile, some of her earlier fury already melted away.

A beat passed before he added, "You still haven't answered my question. Is everything okay?"

She said nothing at first, not entirely sure what to say. She didn't want to complain to him about her problems – what she was feeling was more than a little personal. But why had she come to him if not to talk? He did say that she could come by if she needed to get away _or _to talk. She needed to do both, so why not make herself seem a little weaker? It wasn't like hadn't already expressed her uncertainty and negativity towards everything when she told him about her powers.

"What's the point of me being here?" Alice asked seriously, locking eyes with him, her anger coming back.

Leon frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Wesker says he needs me to fight Umbrella, to help him save the human race, but in the end I've done nothing significant," she explained tightly. "Killing the head Bat was great, but any team could have done it provided they were selected carefully. I offer to go on suicide missions that I know I can come back from because of my abilities, and he refuses because they aren't missions he approves of. I give him my opinion on possible missions, he blows me off by saying he'll take it under advisement. And the New York facility?... His mind was already made up before he brought it up. Instead of doing anything, he keeps me locked up like some animal, only letting me out of my cage when it suits his needs." Shaking her head dejectedly, she asked again, "What is the point of me being here when I have to sit on my ass and do nothing? Why give me back these fucking powers if I can't do anything with them? At the very least let me learn how to control them better in an environment that keeps me from hurting people!"

Reacting to her growing anger, various heavy items in the room began to shake slightly while lighter ones actually lifted off the surfaces they were resting on to hover about an inch in the air.

Head beginning to ache with the unintentional use, she rubbed at her eyes, not caring in the slightest if she smudged the small amount of eyeliner she insisted on wearing – pointless as makeup may be during the end of the world, it brought a sense of normalcy that she liked.

The use of her telekinetics against her will proved that she was too dangerous to be around. When she fought with Wesker her telekinetics acted up but she didn't care if she caused him harm. What worried her was hurting anyone else. More than once she'd woken up just in time from a nightmare to find various heavy objects in her room high in the air, and on one horrific occasion one of the objects had been Becky's cot with her asleep on it. Thankfully, she'd been able to lower the girl and her cot without waking her, but what if the end result had been worse? What if she hurt Becky because she used her telekinetics during a nightmare? What if she couldn't get a grip on her anger and she hurt people in the area? If she hurt Becky, Leon, Jill, or anyone else she'd be sick.

The chaos in her head caused the hovering items to rise higher and the heavy things still on the floor to shake to the point where they almost lifted as well, and it pissed her off even more. Maybe coming to Leon hadn't been a great idea since now he was in the crossfire.

Before she could get up to leave and prevent herself from doing any serious damage, Leon got up from where he'd sat at the foot of his bed and went to her.

Kneeling in front of her, he put his hands on her arms to get her attention. "The point of you being here is because we all need you," he explained, voice gentle but firm. "Wesker knows it, but he thinks he can control you when we all know you do what you want with or without permission. He has a very detailed plan of what he wants to do and it all involves him being in control. What he didn't expect was just about everyone here preferring you to him. Fear can bring loyalty, but given another option, people won't stay loyal to him. I won't lie, people are afraid of you after what happened at the warehouse, but given time they'll come around, I promise. As for all of this," he paused, indicating to his hovering possessions slowly lowering themselves. "You seem to be doing a good job at not hurting me, and I haven't heard anything about you hurting anyone else here."

"Not yet, but I almost hurt Becky the other night. My nightmares…" she trailed off, shaking her head. "Along with some other things, I've destroyed a motorcycle and shattered boulders after lifting them into the air while having nightmares. I have a hard enough time controlling my powers when I'm awake, let alone when I'm unconscious."

"Look, Alice," Leon started with a sigh, trailing his rough hands up and down her arms in a soothing manner that she took comfort from. "I can't begin to understand what you're capable of, but I do know that you saved my life and everyone else on that helicopter when the warehouse blew. Are you dangerous? Definitely, but it seems to me like you've saved more lives with your powers than you've killed. A lot of people owe their lives to you."

If only he knew that it was her fault the virus had gotten out of the Hive. She knew what was going on in the Hive, what was being created, how many laws Umbrella was breaking, and she said nothing until she found out Lisa was with an anti-Umbrella movement. If she hadn't met with Lisa so close to the mansion, Spence wouldn't have overheard and felt the need to steal it and compromise the hive. However indirectly, she caused everything terrible that had happened.

Catching the weary, withdrawn expression that had fallen over her face, Leon gave her a light shake, bring her eyes back to his. "Whatever you're thinking, stop it. We need you, whether you believe it or not, all right?"

Alice wasn't entirely sure she believed him, but it was nice to hear so she nodded.

He didn't seem overly assured by her simple nod but he was already tired from the less than productive meeting and his confrontation with Ada so he let it slide for now.

Wanting to get the subject away from her, Alice stated, "You and Ada are closer than you let on."

Leon stared at her before looking away, a weary sigh escaping him. "She lied to me back in Raccoon, and along the way I developed feelings for her. Whether she genuinely cared too or was just using my feelings to her advantage, things escalated between us and we kissed before she died in my arms. Obviously, she didn't actually die, but she's hardly the same woman I thought I knew in Raccoon City. She's still loyal to Wesker and his ideals after what he's done, and I can't let that go. She's someone I won't ever be able to let go, but anything beyond friendship is impossible at this point," he explained somewhat reluctantly, not liking to talk about Ada with people.

Having heard of Ada Wong during her time with Umbrella before the Hive was compromised, she knew just how manipulative the agent could be. She was Wesker's spy and she went out and did his dirty work gathering intel and samples from rival companies, and she suspected that she'd done worse things in Raccoon and other cities after the infection started to spread. She would have had to be careful though, to remain on the Red Queen's good side for as long as she had. She was inclined to believe that the agent had used Leon's feelings rather than return them, but she couldn't know for sure. For her part, Ada seemed to care at least a little about him.

"We've all had our hearts broken," Alice commented quietly.

Looking at her, Leon nodded in silent agreement.

They sat like that for a while, dwelling and their thoughts, Leon kneeling in front of her with his hands on her forearms, Alice with her head bowed and staring at her hands. She knew they had to look awfully pathetic but she couldn't bring herself to get up and return to her room just yet.

Oddly enough, she felt very… safe, right where she was, and welcomed. It was something she hadn't felt in a very long time, and something she missed terribly. At some point – she didn't know when – Leon had in fact gone from a mere ally to a friend.

Unfortunately, she couldn't stay there forever and was actually very tired.

With a heavy sigh, she shifted her arms so that his hands rested on her forearms and hers on his, and said sincerely, "Thanks for listening. Means a lot."

He gave her a half-smile in return and squeezed her arms fractionally. "Same to you."

He stood first and she followed his example before moving to the door.

"Alice…"

She looked over her shoulder at him.

"Try having Becky sleep in bed with you if you think you might have a nightmare," he suggested. "Might help remind you that you aren't alone."

What she wanted was for Becky to be as far away as possible if she thought she might have a nightmare, but he had a point. If she knew Becky was there she might subconsciously be able to refrain from using her powers to any serious degree during the night. It was worth a try at least.

"I'll try that," she assured him with a small smile. "See you in the morning, Leon."

"Night, Alice."

With that, she left and tiredly made her way back down the hall to the room. There was no doubt that as soon as she stripped to her t-shirt and her head hit the lumpy pillow she'd be asleep. Being angry and using her powers to any degree was draining. She reached her room with no trouble and was relieved that the halls had been virtually vacant. She didn't need rumors starting because she'd been caught walking out of Leon's room late at night.

As she removed her boots and pants, tossing them to the floor beside the bed, she thought over possibility of rumors and shrugged to herself, smiling slightly, and trying to think positive. If rumors were to start, she decided as she laid down to go to sleep, at least they involved her and a man who was attractive.

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **_**So, in regards to the timeline between the events of Raccoon City and my story, I'm figuring it's been about five years since the world went to hell. I came to this conclusion after reading various resources, the books, watching the movies again, and doing some math.**_

_**By the time Alice gets to the prison in **_**Afterlife**_**, it's been about four years and six months since the events in Tokyo (stated in the movie). Since it took months for the T-Virus to spread throughout the world (stated in **_**Extinction**_**), let's just assume that it adds up to five years. The time between the ship being attacked and Alice's time as a prisoner in Umbrella Prime is unknown, but I'm going with her having been held for quite a while since Wesker has established himself as the leader of the resistance. She could have been held for days or weeks, no one really knows and even the book isn't very clear about it. It is possible that Wesker has been working with the resistance for quite some time, though, since in the **_**Retribution**_** book he states that who actually died when the helicopter exploded at the end of **_**Afterli****fe**_** was just a clone, so he could have cut ties with Umbrella prior to the indecent on the ship. I don't know, it's all a little confusing.  
**_

_**All in all, I'm just going to assume that it's been a little over five years.**_

_**I just thought I'd let you all know where I'm coming from in terms of the time-frame. **_

* * *

In the two days that passed since the meeting with Wesker, just about everything had progressed as it normally did within the compound of the White House.

The Bats were fought throughout the night, the undead and BOWs were fought constantly twenty-four-seven, and everyone worked around the clock to maintain the wall around the White House and keep the area safe.

Wesker sent a team out to bring back medical supplies earlier in the day, just as he told General O'Brian he would, and the team had returned with all but two of their men an hour earlier. Now Heather had a full stock of various supplies and wouldn't need to worry about running low for at least two or three months, the military outposts the team raided having had more than enough medical supplies. It was good news that made a lot of people breathe a little easier, but that was where the good news ended.

Soldiers had been asking Leon, Alice, and Jill what the weapons situation was and if they'd be going on a run anytime soon, and some had offered up ideas as to where they might find a cache. Since Wesker had sent a team to find medical supplies, they assumed people would be sent for weapons and ammunition very soon as well. Just about everyone agreed that it would be better to find weapons and ammo sooner rather than later, but Wesker would hear nothing of it. Medical supplies had been a bigger issue than the weapons and ammo, so Wesker didn't see why they couldn't hold off in scavenging by another week or so.

That was only half of the headache for Leon, the other half being the fate of the Umbrella facility in New York.

It had kept him from sleeping well at night and it was constantly on his mind throughout the day. He couldn't just accept Wesker's decision. He had to do something, so he finally decided to confront him a few hours earlier. Ada had warned him against crossing Wesker, stating that he needed Alice, not him, but he went to confront him anyways.

Leon discussed destroying the New York facility or at least going on a weapons run while Alice and Jill worked with some of the soldiers in defending the wall, not wanting to involve the two women in the discussion unless necessary. They were both still understandably angry – Alice more so than Jill – and he wanted to allow them the time to vent their anger on the BOWs and undead trying to clear the wall.

All through the conversation, the former chairman had been calm and listened, instructing for him to continue with his reasoning as to why the facility had to be destroyed and why he believed they should "rush" to replenish the weapons and ammo. When he got to the part about how he would accompany Alice in destroying the facility and backed her on how she felt controlling the clones was wrong, Wesker nodded slowly, listening intently. For a while, Leon thought he might have actually convinced him to at least consider what he was proposing.

His hopes were crushed in an instant when the self-proclaimed leader of the resistance rose from his chair behind the President's desk, came to stand directly in front of him, and said that by siding with Alice he was going against him, and that not many survived defying him. He warned Leon that if he were to aid Alice in any attempt to destroy the facility or undermine his authority, he'd be subject to immediate execution. With that being his final words, Wesker dismissed him with a wave of his hand and sat back down at the desk without giving him so much as a sideways glance.

It had been a long-shot at best anyways, but at least the conversation gave him an idea of what kind of threat everyone faced if they went against Wesker. The ruthless bastard needed Alice, wanted to use her powers for his own personal gain, but he didn't need everyone in the compound. If rubbed the wrong way, he would kill anyone who defied him. Leon had known it for a while, but having Wesker essentially say to his face was like ice water.

A part of him knew that he should tell Alice in case she got any ideas about getting a team together to destroy the facility anytime soon, but he didn't have the heart to tell her just yet. She was still struggling to find a reason to stay with everyone at the White House, perceiving herself as too dangerous to be around. He didn't want to tell her that anyone who helped her go against Wesker would be killed. Doing so would only bring her down more. She'd have to be told sooner or later, but he wanted to prolong it for as long as possible. Alice was a good person, one of the few who still truly cared about more than her own existence, and it was something he admired about her. But he knew that it made her uniquely vulnerable, and her situation made her lonely. She considered herself to be a threat to everyone, and though he tried to assure her each time he saw her in private that people were safe with her, he didn't think she believed him. After talking to Wesker, maybe she was right not to believe him.

Whether Alice was right or wrong in her growing desire to leave to protect everyone, Leon didn't want her to go. She was a welcomed change to the normal company and he'd just started looking forward to their chats now that they didn't begin and end with one arguing with the other. She was a unique woman, one whom he wanted to get to know better, but she was hardly without fault.

Her desire to protect everyone seemed to blind her to the bigger picture. Saving people was all well and good, but sacrifices had to be made if they were ever going to defeat Umbrella. He didn't like leaving people behind and tried to help when he could, but he understood that it was sometimes necessary. Then there was her temper towards Wesker. He didn't know if she lost control like she did with Wesker when angered by others, but he worried that should do something foolish if no one managed to cool her down. Her telekinesis display in his room the other night was proof that she needed help dealing with everything – her hate of Wesker, her fear of her powers and ultimately herself, and the things she's dealt with over the years – but she kept everyone at arm's length.

Though she'd accepted his comfort and confided in him about her T-Virus infection, fear that she'd hurt someone with her powers, her wish that people wouldn't flock to her for help, and had come to him when she needed someone, she still kept herself relatively closed off. Once she felt that she'd said enough she would change the subject or wouldn't say anything at all. Leon liked to think that they could be called friends now, and if she let him in just a little more he would help her deal with whatever was going on in that head of hers. He didn't know what help he could be or if he'd helped at all whenever he talked to her and tried to comfort her, but all he could do was try.

Alice was a stubborn woman, perhaps more stubborn than Ada. It was up to her as to whether or not she'd let him in.

Deciding that he'd taken a long enough break in his workout in the cafeteria to think about Alice and the New York facility, he took one more drink of water before setting it next to his bunched up gray shirt on the bench he'd been occupying for the past few minutes and walked over to one of the horizontal bars mounted in the back of the room.

His left arm still ached from being broken and doing a series of pull-ups probably wouldn't do much to ease the ache, but the arm was weak enough from having been in a sling for so long that he had to move past the pain to get his strength back up. With that in mind, he reached for the bar high above his head with his palms facing away from him and began pulling himself up, holding the position for a second or two, then lowering himself and repeating the process. After a short while his left arm started to burn a bit and he took that as a good sign – as the saying went, no pain no gain.

Commotion over by the main door drew his attention and he glanced in that direction to find Corporal Andy Lake walking in with a few of his fellow soldiers. Judging by the water bottles they carried and their attire, they'd be staying to work out for a while.

It was just Leon's luck that Lake would decide to occupy the cafeteria's gym while he was there, but he wasn't going to leave just because the kid had walked in so he just continued with his pull-ups, intending to switch to the punching bag in a little while. Hopefully, Lake would just leave him be.

Unlike Trenton who had a habit of harassing the women within compound and being a typical idiot, it was Lake who grated on Leon's nerves. At twenty-five, the kid still had a lot to learn but he thought he bested everybody because Wesker often picked him to lead a variety of missions, such as the medical supply run that had been a success. Wesker spoke highly of Lake which in turn gave Lake the feeling of superiority amongst everyone else. He was cocky, arrogant, cold, selfish, and held Wesker on some sort of pedestal. Leon had to remember that Lake and the squad he'd been with were essentially rescued by Wesker, the first military group to officially join him, and that the kid saw the man as a kind of twisted super hero, or if one was feeling overly dramatic, as a savior come to deliver them from Hell. As ridiculous as it was, the young man saw the former chairman as some sort of god among men and was one of the few who seriously liked him, his ideals, and methods.

That was what made Leon wary of him, but what pissed him off were the rumors he'd been spreading about Alice.

She'd saved not only Leon and Jill's asses when the warehouse exploded, but also Lake's and the pilot's.

And how did he repay her?

He spread rumors about how she was some sort of Umbrella operative sent in by the Red Queen to kill them all, a kind of Trojan Horse or a wolf in sheep's clothing, and that she'd allowed Umbrella to turn her into some kind of monster. The rumors he'd started made more than a few people legitimately afraid of her and did nothing for her moral. Some people did question Lake as to how exactly he learned all this from one telekinesis display that saved him and the others, and he would reply that he just knew and that Wesker had hinted that it was true. Though Leon doubted Wesker had actually hinted to that, he was willing to believe that he did encourage Lake and his rumor if only to keep people in fear of Alice.

Alice didn't deserve the trouble Lake was giving her, she really didn't, and Leon was tempted to put the kid in his place.

A few minutes passed by without incident as the group worked with the weights on the other side of the cafeteria, but eventual Lake wandered over towards Leon and he groaned silently. It was no secret that he hated the kid, so it was unlikely that he'd come over for a friendly conversation.

Ignoring his buddies who tried calling him back over and warning him against being a dumb-ass, Lake took position under one of the bars to Leon's left and proceeded to do chin-ups in rapid succession that made the older man roll his eyes. If the kid was trying to show off or outdo him, all he'd succeed in accomplishing was pulling a muscle.

Lake said nothing for a good minute, giving Leon the impression that he might have just come over to show off or get on his nerves, but then he opened his mouth and he knew his day was just going to continue going downhill. Having woken up exhausted with a headache and being threatened by Wesker, his day already wasn't going well. If Wesker's star pupil pushed his luck he might very well find himself on his ass with a broken jaw.

"So, I hear Alice is lookin' to get a team together to take out that New York facility," Lake started casually, grunting with the effort it took to maintain the pace of his chin-ups. "She does know that the boss wants it intact, right?"

Leon said nothing, choosing to ignore him for as long as possible.

Glancing at him, he waited for a response but when Leon remained silent, he said, "Wesker's dead set on controlling that place. He's fucking obsessed with it." Looking around for anyone who might be listening, he added with a conspiratorial whisper, "I hope she _does _destroy it."

That gave the former cop pause and he looked briefly at Lake in confusion and doubt.

Noticing his reaction, he pressed, "Want to know why?"

"Not particularly," Leon grumbled, wishing Lake would just leave him be.

Maybe he wanted to push him past his limits, maybe he was too stupid to realize just how much he hated him, but Lake didn't keep his mouth shut. "I'll tell you why I want her to blow the place," he began, pausing in his chin-ups. With a twisted smile, he said, "It'll give Wesker a reason to put the bitch down."

Leon's grip on the bar tightened. It came as no surprise that Lake wished the worst on Alice, but knowing it and hearing it were two different things.

"The woman saved your sorry ass, Lake," Leon bit out. "Show some respect."

"Respect for an Umbrella science project?" he asked incredulously, his word choice angering Leon further.

"I'm only going to say this once," he started tightly, letting himself down from the bar and wiping the back of his hand across his sweaty forehead. "Drop it and leave Alice alone."

Maybe if he started beating on the punching bag he could keep himself from beating on Lake.

"Can't say I'm surprise about your loyalty to her," Lake continued, dropping from the bar with a grunt, stretching his arms. Further pushing his luck, he followed. "All that one-on-one time you two have had…" he trailed off, chuckling.

Rounding on him, Leon was past ignoring him with what he was insinuating and demanded, "You have something to say? Let's hear it."

"Lake, come on, let it go," pleaded the only woman in the group that he'd come in with while the guys egged him on.

Far too pleased with the rise he was getting out of Leon, he replied casually, "I get it, Kennedy – she's got a fine ass. Hell, I'd –"

"Finish that sentence and you'll be picking your teeth up off the floor," warned Jill Valentine, having walked into the cafeteria seconds earlier when Leon let go of the bar.

Moving to stand between the two men, she fixed Lake with an icy stare.

"Just having a friendly chat, is all," he said innocently, smirking at Leon before returning to his buddies, some chuckling while a few were shaking their heads at him.

All Leon wanted to do was reduce the guy to a bloody pulp but all in all he was glad that Jill had shown up when she did. His day would have only gotten worse if he'd punched Lake. Given the possibilities of the sentence Jill had cut off, he likely would have beat the shit out of him.

Once the young man was on the other side of the room, Jill turned her attention to her friend and asked, "What the fuck was that all about?"

"Nothing," he said tightly, not wanting to get into it.

She snorted. "Right, because nothing always leads to that much testosterone in a room. You looked like you were going to snap his neck."

"Nothing he doesn't have coming to him," he pointed out. Putting on his fingerless gloves, he stepped over to the punching back and began wailing on it, taking his frustration out on the innocent bag. "I thought you were out defending the wall with Alice."

"I came in for a breather after the next shift of soldiers came out to relieve everybody," she explained, taking hold of the bag to keep it still. "Alice's stamina is a bit more impressive than mine, so she's still out there helping. Gives her something to do."

With all that she was dealing with, he was glad that she'd found a way to keep busy. What better way to vent her frustration, anger, and confusion than by shooting the undead and BOWs? It not only felt good but it helped everyone out.

"She won over a few soldiers while we were out there, too," she continued. "I guess watching her blow the heads off Lickers and the undead helps ease their fear of her to some degree. The only one who isn't happy with her being out there for so long is Becky."

"That's not surprising. Becky loves Alice," Leon commented. He knew that Alice had told the girl the truth, knew that Becky hadn't talked for over a day after being told, and knew that she still saw Alice as her mother despite knowing that she wasn't.

Jill nodded solemnly, sighing. "Back in Raccoon City, we recused a little girl a year or two older than Becky in exchange for a way out – Angela Ashford, but she liked to be called Angie. Sweet girl, brave too. She loved Alice much the same way as Becky loves her."

"Alice mentioned her to me," he said with a nod, recalling the sad look that passed over Alice's face when she told him of her.

Glancing at him around the bag, she added sadly, "I was hoping she survived this mess and that she was with Carlos and L.J somewhere, but Alice told me shortly after arriving that both Carlos and L.J were dead and that Umbrella murdered Angie."

Leon hesitated in his punches, frowning.

She continued bitterly, "Alice won't tell me what happened. Says I'm better off not knowing the details. Umbrella's always been ruthless, but this was back when people still ran the corporation – no AI and no clones. How any normal human being could murder a child is beyond me."

When Alice told him what made her a weapon, she told him that Isaacs had control over her via the cybernetics in her head and that she'd shot Angela in the head when he ordered her to. Jill was much closer to her than he was, but Alice told her a different story. Why tell him the truth but not her?

"Leon?" she asked, watching him closely. "You okay?"

He nodded after a moment. "I'm fine."

"Did she tell you something about Angie?" she demanded, seeing something in his expression that told her he knew something she didn't.

"… No. She didn't tell me anything," he lied, focusing on beating punching bag.

"You sure?" she questioned, giving him one more chance to be straight with her.

"Positive."

It was obvious that she didn't believe him for a second, but she didn't press the issue, though she was clearly in a sour mood now. "Whatever you say, Leon," she said curtly, releasing the bag. "I'll see you later."

Jill turned and walk out without a backwards glance and Leon let her go, understanding that she was pissed. He was too, but more because Alice had put him in a position with Jill that he hadn't expected to find himself in. Had she told him that Jill wasn't aware of the truth that surrounded Angela's death, that would be different, he wouldn't have been caught off guard and wouldn't have reacted the way he had. He didn't appreciate being put in the position where he'd had to lie to someone he considered a friend.

Giving the bag one more firm punch, he walked over to the table to retrieve his gray shirt and water. Even if Alice was still outside he was going to grab her, drag her back in, and ask why she felt the need to leave out the little detail that Jill didn't know about Angela.

Leon pulled his shirt over his head, sweat making it stick to his skin, and left the cafeteria to search for Alice.

Considering how stubborn she was, if she was outside he'd probably have to talk to her out there because she wouldn't want to come in if she was busy. He could wait until later when he'd cooled off a bit, but he wanted an answer. That and he had to ask her about what Lake had said.

"_So, I hear Alice is lookin' to get a team together to take out that New York facility."_

There was a chance that Lake was just yanking his chain, but if Alice was in fact getting people together to strike that facility she needed to be told that anyone who went with her and returned would be at risk of execution. He didn't want to tell her, didn't want to bring her down, but if that was what she was intending to do it didn't matter whether he wanted to tell her or not. She needed to know.

Walking at a fast pace down the hall, taking a drink of water, he passed the infirmary before coming to a halt and doubling back, having heard the voice of the woman he was looking for.

He looked into the infirmary and saw Alice with an arm around Becky as she talked to Heather. She was a little dirty from being outside helping the soldiers fight, but also looked to be in a good mood. He wished that he didn't have to ruin it.

Sighing, he knocked on the door-frame, getting the attention of both women.

"Oh, hello, Leon," Heather greeted with a warm smile. "Do you need something?"

"I need to talk to Alice, actually," he said, fixing the brunet with a serious look.

Frowning a bit, Alice nodded and signed to Becky, "I'll be back in a minute."

"Okay."

She gave her a smile before walking over to Leon, following him down the hall a ways until they were virtually alone. "Is something wrong?"

"You could say that," he sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before looking her in the eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that Jill doesn't know how Angela died?"

A shadow fell over her lovely features and she looked away.

When an answer didn't come, he continued in growing frustration, "I was just talking to her in the cafeteria and she told me that you said Umbrella murdered her, but that you won't give her the details. Considering you told me an entirely different story, I was a little taken aback by what she said, and she noticed my reaction and asked if I knew something."

"What did you say?" she asked, looking at him worriedly, a flicker of betrayal sparking in her blue eyes.

"I told her that you didn't tell me anything," Leon assured her. "She didn't believe me, but she didn't push for the truth."

Relief flooded her face, washing away that hint of betrayal, and she said sincerely, "Thank you."

"Why did you tell me the truth but not her, Alice?"

The weight of his question almost seemed to overwhelm her and she said nothing for a very long moment that felt like hours rather than seconds.

"We all loved that little girl," she said sadly at last. "She was almost like the glue that kept us together, gave us something to fight for. She was so smart and so helpful. After I killed her, I managed to get enough control back to warn Carlos to stay away when he and a few others came searching for me because Isaacs had ordered me to get rid of them. I told him Angie was dead, and the look on his face…" she trailed off and her eyes watered. "I couldn't tell him or anyone I'd murdered her under orders from Isaacs. I almost wanted to tell Claire at one point, but she was taking care of so many kids in her convoy that I just couldn't. They might have understood that I was being controlled when I killed her, but… they still would have seen me as the woman who put a hole through that girl's adorable face. I couldn't tell him or anyone else what I'd done."

He nodded solemnly, understanding now why she hadn't told anyone else, but something nagged at him. "Why tell me?"

Her resolve crumbled just a little bit and she replied quietly with a slight shrug, "You can only keep something bottled up for so long. You never met her and haven't had kids to look after, so… you're the only one around here I felt comfortable telling."

That struck a cord and it occurred to him that he'd been wrong in his thoughts earlier. Maybe she had been letting him in more than he thought and he just hadn't noticed. He was glad that she felt comfortable telling him something as personal as Angela's death.

"From now on, just tell me if someone else has been told a different story, okay?" he asked, frustration melting away.

"I will," she promised. "Guess I've had too much on my mind lately, because it never occurred to me that she might talk to you about it. Between my powers, Wesker, the New York facility, and training Becky, I've had a lot on my plate."

"That's something else I needed to talk to you about," he started, knowing he had to be upfront with her about the situation they were facing. "Lake said that you're trying to get a team together to go destroy the facility. Is that true?"

She nodded. "I figured you, Jill, and maybe a few sympathetic soldiers could come with me to take it out. Provided I can get a hold of a helicopter without anyone noticing, we should get out of here to see it through without a hitch. Might even be able to bring back some weapons."

Her confirmation of his fears made him sigh, and he said slowly with more than a little reluctance, "Alice, I spoke with Wesker earlier today about the facility – thought I could convince him to destroy it or at least let us go get some weapons. He told me that if I were to help you go against his orders, I'd be subject to immediate execution, and I'm fairly certain that goes for anyone else who helps you do anything that he doesn't approve of."

Alice gaped at him, eyes wide, before she shook her head and leaned back against the wall, defeated.

"So by doing what's right, I'll get people killed," she summed up quietly, resolve splintering.

Moving closer to stand directly in front of her, he insisted, "We'll find another way to destroy it."

"Anyone who comes with me to do it or goes out to do it on their own will be executed," she argued. Looking down the hall as a few analysts chatted about something, a folder in one's hand, she added, "I'm putting everyone in danger by being here."

"Everyone's in danger every day of the week, Alice," Leon reasoned, seeing where she was going with her line of thought. "We all need you here to help fight these things."

"You can say that a hundred times, Leon, but it doesn't make it true," she sighed. Returning her withdrawn blue eyes to him, she announced after a moment, "I'm not going to stay here much longer, Leon. I can't be around people, much less be around people I care about."

Hardly okay with what was coming out of her mouth, he frowned and demanded, "What about Becky? Are you planning to take her with you, or will you leave her behind? If she wakes up one day and you're gone she'll be devastated."

"I don't know what to do about her yet," she admitted. "I love her, but she'd be better off without me."

"Bull shit."

"Leon –"

He cut her off, "Where would you go? It's hell on Earth out there, and you want to go out into it alone?"

"I can take care of myself," Alice insisted, growing irritated with arguing. "I've made it on my own before, and I can do it again."

Feeling his anger rise at her insistence, he snapped, "Damn it, Alice, you don't have to be on your own! You have people here who want you to stay and want to help you! Jill, Heather, _me_…" he trailed off, not entirely sure what he could say that wasn't already said. He wanted her to stay now that he was enjoying being around her, but that was beside the point and not something he felt entirely comfortable admitting.

Alice stared at him, waiting for something, but when he said nothing else she just sighed in what sounded a little like disappointment and said, "I'm sorry, Leon, but this is how it has to be. It's better if I'm not around people."

"I don't believe that."

Shrugging, she said, "Doesn't make it any less true."

It wasn't true, she was just too stubborn to see it.

"Mommy?" Becky called, stepping into the hallway and looking for her. When she spotted her, she hurried over and asked in a little kid sort of way, "Can we get something to eat now, please?"

Mustering up as positive a smile as she could, she nodded. Looking to Leon, she opened her mouth, closed it, then said, "I guess I'll see you later."

She made to walk away but he grasped her arm tightly, stopping her, and pleaded, "Think about what I said before you make your decision, all right? Don't do something you'll regret."

Pursing her lips, she then gave him a less than convincing smile and replied, "I will."

He didn't believe her for a single second and could see that her mind was already made up.

Frustrated and angry with her, he let go of her arm and watched her walk away with Becky to get some food – something else they were running low on.

If she struck out on her own, she'd be in for a rude awakening.

What was going on just beyond the walls was merely a taste of horror that was going on throughout the world. Major cities were swarming with the undead and BOWs, and both small towns and the wilderness had dangerous of their own waiting in the shadows.

About two years ago, Leon and Barry were searching for survivors who had been calling for help over the radio up in the forests of Washington and had found that the undead almost blended with the environment, moss and mold growing on their rotted flesh making them almost invisible in anything but perfect light. But it was the undead-dogs that gave the two the greatest trouble. The dogs had traveled in packs through the forest like wolves out of a horror movie with a never-ending hunger. By the time they finally found the people who had been calling for help, they'd been eaten by the dogs.

After that Leon and Barry met up with the others in their group and hit the road again, paying a lot more attention to the various environments they found themselves in.

The infected had adapted to their environment in ways that made them even more dangerous, and he wasn't sure that Alice fully understood that. And while he doubted the White House held the only humans left in the world, he suspected that they were by far the largest group. She'd be hard pressed to find anyone if she needed help.

Striking out on her own was both foolish and suicidal, but Leon didn't know how to make Alice believe that she didn't have to be alone and that she wasn't as big of a threat as she thought she was. If she wanted to leave it'd be hard for him to stop her, but he felt he had to do _something_ to keep her from going, or at the very least make sure she was fully prepared if – when – she did decide to leave them in the dust.

For now, all Leon could do was hope that Alice wouldn't be leaving soon if only to give him enough time to figure out what to do.

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	6. Chapter 6

Leon couldn't have gotten more than four hours of sleep, if that, too preoccupied with trying to think of a way to convince Alice to stay with everyone in the White House, and was up and about by 5am. House passed by, and he still didn't know what to do.

She seemed so adamant about leaving that it made him fear there was nothing he could say to keep her from leaving. All through the night, he'd been tempted to go to her and try to talk to her, try to convince her to stay, but it would have been a lost cause. Once she made up her mind, that was that, it was a done deal.

Still, there had to be something that could make her stay or at least hold off in leaving. He just had to figure out what it was.

Their friendship was fairly new and he didn't know what exactly made her tick, what made her smile, and what the hell would get her to stay. He'd tried demanding that she stay, he tried telling her they all needed her, and he tried easing her fears of hurting people. Though if he were being honest with himself, he hadn't really talked to her about it, but had more accurately thrown reasons at her as to why she should stay. It was quite obvious that his attempts weren't what she needed to hear to change her mind. He supposed he could always tell her that he wanted her to stay for more reasons than just her value to the resistance, but it didn't seem like the right time to bring that up, and he wasn't going to use that as ammunition to get her to stay.

The only thing that would convince her to stay – maybe – was the New York facility being destroyed. That place was at the center of her reasons for wanting to leave. Destroying that place would give them an edge, give her the feeling of control over her actions that she needed, and if people were to accompany her she might see that people trusted her even with her dangerous powers. Unfortunately, if anyone went with her and returned they'd be killed, and that would ensure that she would leave.

It seemed like a lose/lose situation.

"You all right over there, Kennedy?" asked Gibson, hefting armfuls of ammunition cases out of the back storage room to set on a table.

"Yeah," he replied, not wanting to discuss Alice with the Lieutenant, and finished putting the machine gun that he'd just cleaned back together before picking up a rifle to take apart.

He'd been helping the soldier for the past hour by reloading and cleaning guns to take out to the soldiers fighting outside. There were already people lending a hand, but Leon had already finished with some of his duties around the White House and thought that doing some more work would help him think before he had to get back to his own jobs – the benefit of not sleeping much during the night meant that he had extra time to get his own work done and help out the others. Technically, the job of cleaning weapons, reloading weapons, and keeping track of ammunition was the job of Gibson and no one else, but there was always a group of people aiding him. The more people who got the guns cleaned and loaded, the sooner they got back out to the soldiers outside.

"You sure?" Gibson questioned. "You've been spacin' out since you got here."

He wasn't going to talk to him about Alice, but there was something he could ask.

"What's your take on the New York facility?" he asked, keeping his tone low in case someone in the room was all for keeping it in tact.

The Lieutenant glanced at him before returning to his work, loading the weapons Leon and a few others had cleaned. "Officially, we have to destroy it," he said curtly.

"And unofficially?"

"Almost everyone in this compound wants that facility blown to hell," he replied, jaw tense. "We've had to deal with sneak attacks from the clones using that facility as home base for months, and it links them to the bitch herself. A few explosives in the right places would fry the communications center and every clone inside. Best outcome for everyone would be destroying it, not playing God with a bunch of clones."

Comfortable now that he knew he was talking with someone who wasn't brainwashed by Wesker, Leon nodded in agreement and said, "Controlling clones who are imprinted to be loyal to the Red Queen is the same as enslavement in my book."

Gibson nodded. "The only clones I can sort of get behind controlling are the ones with no memories, you know? You could tell them that they're soldiers fighting for us, but even then that's pushin' it." Sighing, shaking his head, he slammed a magazine into a gun and added bitterly, "Seems like free will died when the undead took over. We don't watch our asses, Wesker will start trying to control us too."

Leon wanted to add that he was technically already doing that, but left it out. Instead, he asked, "What about the armory in the New York facility? Wesker says it's supposed to be loaded, but if we destroy it we wouldn't get to use any of the weapons."

At that, Gibson smirked and replied, "General O'Brian's already working on locating a cache that should give us a few extra weeks to find a major score. That old dinosaur isn't going to sit back and let Wesker order him around like some new recruit. If he finds a cache or a clone armory, he'll send some soldiers to go raid and retrieve everything of use."

General Simon O'Brian was a career Marine in his mid-sixties and was the most respected man within the compound. He was a hardass and settled for nothing but the best when it came to carrying out missions, but he cared about the people under his command and, like Alice, saw beyond his own existence and was willing to do whatever was necessary to bring down the Red Queen. What made him incredibly respected now, however, had nearly cost him his rank before the world was overrun because he was one of the few people who didn't buy into the bullshit Umbrella had been force feeding the world and didn't believe the reports about Raccoon City. It hadn't made him popular when things were normal, but now it brought him respect for not bending to the will of Umbrella.

If he said he could find an alternate source of weapons and ammunition, he would find it.

But at what cost?

O'Brian was one of the few people within the compound who wasn't afraid or intimidated by Wesker, but he wasn't a fool. He had to know that by going against Wesker, even to just get weapons, would put both his life and the life of his men at risk.

Echoing his thoughts, Gibson asked, "You don't think Wesker would kill the General and his men if they didn't listen to him, do you? I mean, it's not like he'd be able to replace them."

Something in what he said caught Leon's attention and he raised his head to stare at him. "Say that again."

"Before you got here, there were rumors that Wesker would send people he didn't like out on missions they wouldn't be able to get back from. Now there's a rumor that he'll just kill anyone who doesn't listen to him," he explained, unaware that Leon already knew this. "A lot of the guys are worried we'll have our asses handed to us if Wesker gets control of the clones. He'd have hundreds of loyal soldiers, and won't need us. But until then, all he has is us." Getting more to the point of what he'd been implying in his earlier sentence, he said, "When O'Brian sends soldiers out for whatever reason, he sends at least ten out. So say O'Brian orders some of his guys to go get us some weapons and ammo – do you think Wesker would kill him and his men when he needs them? If he kills O'Brian he'll lose the loyalty of most of the people here, soldiers and civilians alike, and he can't afford to lose ten or more good soldiers before he's got his hands on some clones."

Leon stared at Gibson as if he'd just answered every single question he had running through his head.

Once Wesker seized control of the clones along the eastern seaboard he would have no need of the soldiers and could toss them aside whenever they disagreed with his orders. But he didn't have clones under his command right now. He had less than a hundred soldiers and some civilians. Wesker couldn't afford a significant loss in his forces. And if he did kill O'Brian, he would lose loyalty in a heartbeat.

Rising to his feet, he said quickly to Gibson, "I have to go talk with O'Brian."

He ignored his friend's questions and hurried out of the room and down the hall, a plan already forming in his head. It was crazy, suicidal even, and there was no guarantee that it would even work, but it was the only way he could think of to keep Alice from leaving as well as protect the people within the compound.

All he had to do was convince the General.

Jill rounded a corner and was nearly rundown by Leon who pivoted just into to avoid knocking her down.

"Christ, Leon, where's the fire?" she asked, but he just kept walking at a fast pace. Jogging up to him, she questioned worriedly, "Hey, what's going on?"

"I think I have a solution for the New York facility," he replied, not going into detail. "Where's Alice?"

"She's in the cafeteria working with Becky," she replied, following him up the steps to the first floor.

When Alice took time out of the day to teach Becky how to fight, it was always for at least two hours, and then she and the girl would to take a shower before getting something to munch on, adding up to about three hours. Since he'd seen her walking down the hall with the girl about forty-five minutes ago, he knew he had time to talk to O'Brian.

He couldn't afford having Alice catching on for fear that she'd try to stop him, so he told Jill, "I have to talk to O'Brian. Keep an eye on her and if she acts like she's going to try to come up to talk to him, stall her for as long as possible. I don't care what you have to do."

She stared at him in wary confusion. "What are you up to?"

"Listen," he began, coming to a stop and facing her. "Alice is planning to leave. I don't know when, but now that she knows that anyone who follows her and goes against Wesker's plans will be killed it's a safe bet to assume that it'll be soon. She's already told me that she doesn't plan to stay much longer."

"God damn it," Jill grumbled, raking her fingers through her hair. "I should have seen this coming." At his question stare, she said, "Alice is a leader, an alpha female. She leads; she doesn't follow if she doesn't have to."

He could relate to that.

Leon was a natural leader, even before he applied to the police academy at twenty-nine. He would have applied sooner, but a long list of events that had been out of control prevented him from doing so. Leading came easy to him, like breathing, and people followed him readily, but following was hard for him to do. It wasn't something he normally did, and the only person he believed he could follow was Alice, and even that was a little hard to swallow. He'd spent years leading Barry and the rest of the group, but now they were all dead and he was in a position where he wasn't the main leader anymore, just another leader amongst leaders. It was rough at times, and frustrating all the time.

He imagined Alice felt the same, if not worse.

Continuing, Jill confessed, "On the way here after Umbrella Prime, she asked me if I'd leave with her and Becky – just take off when you, Ada, and the soldiers weren't looking after we stopped for fuel. I convinced her that we didn't have anywhere to go and that we should wait for our chance to take out Wesker, but I never would have expected him to shoot her up with the T-Virus!" Shaking her head, she huffed slightly. "To tell you the truth, I'm amazed she's stayed this long. We all want her to stay because of her powers and usefulness as a fighter, leader, and all, but no one's given her a reason to stay because of _her_."

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Leon, you can't be that dense," Jill began, rolling her eyes. "Alice might be a badass, T-Virus enhanced human, but she's still a woman. We react to things a little differently than men sometimes. You can tell us that we're need for our expertise, that we're needed because people count on us, and all that, but sometimes what we need to hear is that we're wanted on a personal level. To be told you're need as a parent, sister, friend, or lover can give a woman a good emotional boost."

Leon thought about that and wonder if he maybe should have told Alice that he wanted her to stay because he enjoyed being around her. He decided that while it may have made her feel better, it probably wouldn't have made her stay given how determined she'd sounded when she said she wouldn't be staying long. After listening to Jill, though, he decided that if his plan worked and she did stay he would tell her that he wanted her to stay for more than one reason.

Provided he didn't find himself with a bullet between the eyes, that is.

Nodding slowly, he said, "Well, I think I have an idea on how to convince her to stay, but it's a bit drastic."

"How drastic?" she asked with a frown.

"Just trust me on this," he urged. He couldn't tell her and risk her trying to stop him. "And keep Alice busy."

She looked like she wanted to demand answers, not one to like being in the dark, but relented and nodded with a sigh. "I'll do what I can."

"Thanks."

The two went their separate ways to accomplish their tasks, and Leon slowed his brisk walk to something more acceptable when he reached the second floor so that he wouldn't draw unwanted attention to himself. It seemed as if he'd walked a mile before he finally found himself in front of O'Brian's door.

Any other time he would knock, but this time was different so he walked on in to find him having a meeting with Trenton.

Looking away from the young man, frowning at the intrusion, O'Brian said, "Most people knock before entering, Kennedy."

"Sorry, General," he apologized sincerely then looked at Trenton for a moment before looking back to the aging man. "I need to speak with you in private, sir. It's important."

Having known Leon long enough to know that when he said something was important it was serious, he set down the file he was holding and said to Trenton firmly, "We'll discuss these accusations later. Dismissed." After the young man saluted and walked out, shutting the door, O'Brian shook his head and commented dryly, "One of these days he's going to slap the wrong woman's ass and find himself castrated rather than tattled on. Now, Leon," he began with a more welcoming tone. "What is it that's so important you couldn't knock?"

"You need to send a team out to destroy the New York facility as soon as humanly possible," he said matter-of-factly with the utmost sincerity.

General O'Brian stared at him with disbelieving gray eyes as though he had a second head or third eye.

Removing his glasses, he asked slowly, "Being that we don't have alcohol you obviously can't be drunk, and Heather hasn't informed me of any health problems you may have that would cause insanity, so just what in the hell is your reasoning for asking me to make a strike against that facility?"

"Apart from the fact that the kind of control he wants is damn near slavery, you know as well as I do that if Wesker gets control of that facility he'll have no need for any of us – not you, not me, not the soldiers, and definitely none of the civilians," he explained. "I spoke with Gibson, and he and the other soldiers are worried that if he gets those clones he'll find a reason to get rid of everyone else."

"Leon, I share everyone's concerns, and were it up to me I'd have dropped a bomb down the facilities ventilation shaft long ago," said the General, extending his hand towards the chair on the other side of the desk in invitation. When Leon accepted and took a seat, he continued grimly, "Unfortunately, it's not as simple as you may think it is. While I can probably get away with raiding the warehouse I've located for weapons and ammunition, Wesker has made it clear to me that any attempt to destroy the facility will be seen as treason and both myself and my men will be executed."

Sighing, he nodded and said, "Yeah, he told me something similar."

"Were it just me, I'd throw caution to the wind and blow the place straight to hell, but I have a wife and son to think about, and I won't lead my men to certain death, Leon, I'm sorry."

"With all due respect, General," Leon began tightly, holding eye contact. "By leaving that facility for Wesker to claim you're sentencing both your family and men to death."

Grey eyes hardening, O'Brian warned angrily, "Watch what you say, son. I'm taking every precaution to ensure that my family –"

"Alice is going to leave," Leon interrupted.

The old General's rising anger turned to shock, and he asked, "When?"

"I don't know," he sighed, leaning forward with his elbows on the desk. "I spoke to her yesterday after learning that she was planning to attack the facility, and after I warned her that anyone who went with her or disobeyed Wesker would be killed she told me that she wasn't going to be staying here much longer. As far as she's concerned, she's too dangerous to be around, both because of Wesker's threat and her…" he hesitated, unsure if he should divulge her secret.

But it seemed O'Brian already knew and he finished, "And because of her powers. Wesker informed me that she's infected with the T-Virus and that while she isn't contagious and isn't to turn, it gives her superhuman powers and the like." Leaning back in his chair, he asked, "Has she said what she plans to do with the little girl?"

Leon shook his head.

"That girl's been through too much for Alice to just leave her behind if she does leave," commented O'Brian disapprovingly, unhappy with what Alice was planning to do.

Seeing his opening to prove his case, Leon said, "Sir, Alice is the only one who has the strength to potentially bring down Wesker when the times right, and as afraid of her as some of the people are, most would rather follow her lead. If we lose her, we're all screwed."

O'Brian nodded in silent agreement, and then asked curiously, "How is her leaving connected to the facility?"

"Right now, she thinks that people will be executed if they follow her lead, but if that facility is destroyed that might not actually happen," he explained, laying his plan out before him. "You and as many soldiers you can round take a helicopter to the facility to destroy it after we have someone remove a few key pieces of equipment from the remaining helicopters so no one follows and tries to stop you. With that facility destroyed, Wesker will have no one to help him fight the Red Queen except for us, and if he kills you he'll lose every ounce of loyalty within this compound. He can afford to lose a few, but not everyone, not when he doesn't have the clones to turn to."

"And I would accompany my men because…?"

He wasn't against joining his men, just curious.

Leon shrugged and replied, "If you go with your men Wesker won't be able to find an excuse to ignore your role in the destruction of the facility. If he's going to execute people who don't obey him, he'll have to execute you to. But like I said, he loses loyalty if he does. By doing this, we can back him into a corner."

"Your plan is insane, but it's often the insane plans that work out the most," he admitted with a bit of reluctance, considering what Leon was saying. "You still haven't told me what this has to do with Alice."

"Just before you and your men leave, have someone whisper in Lake's ear that I convinced you and your men to take out that facility. You all will be in the air and on your way to the facility, leaving me as the only one Wesker can to deal with then and there," he began, mildly concerned about this part. "Right before you get ready to leave, I'll grab Alice and tell her that if she's so concerned about protecting everyone, she has to stand up to Wesker and try to take some control away from him once it's clear that he won't have his clones, or something, I'm still working on that part. I'll try to leave her with some kind of ultimatum."

"You've got a lot of guts to offer yourself up like some kind of sacrificial lamb, kid. That, or you're the dumbest son of a bitch I've ever met," O'Brian observed dryly, staring at him as if he was insane, which he probably was.

In his defense, everyone was a little insane these days.

Silence fell between them and Leon let his plan hang in the air for agonizing seconds, letting O'Brian chew it over, make adjustments, and just consider it. The waiting was killing him, but he resisted the urge to tap his foot or speak. If the General didn't agree with him or didn't want to risk it, he firmly believed Alice would leave within days and they'd all be dead men walking.

O'Brian looked at his watch.

It was 10:58am.

Sighing, he looked away and picked up a tattered photo of Heather and Tyler, tracing over their smiling faces with his thumb. A slight smile found its way to his face before the frown returned and he set the photo down gingerly.

Releasing a long breath, he interlocked his fingers, locked eyes with Leon, and then asked, "Can you figure out what to say to Alice within two hours?"

Leon blinked, gaping slightly.

He'd expected that if he were to agree that he'd plan to strike the facility within a day or two, not mere hours! While he was relieved that he'd indirectly agreed, he wasn't sure if he liked the time-frame or not, but he would take what he could get.

"Absolutely," Leon replied with conviction.

"Well, then, Mr. Kennedy," O'Brian began, rising from his chair. "While I prepare my men, I suggest you prepare your little speech to her and be ready for a worst case scenario just in case things don't end well for you and she doesn't come around. This may not work, you know," he pointed out, extending his hand.

Rising as well, he shook O'Brian's hand gratefully. "It'll work. Thank you, Sir."

"For your sake, son, I hope it does." Picking up his hat, he added, "Remember – two hours. The men I choose not to accompany me will start telling people what you've done the moment we prepare to leave, so once you see us getting ready to take off you get your ass down to Alice because it won't take long for word to reach Lake and he won't delay in dragging you to Wesker."

"I'll talk to her before he has the chance to," Leon assured him.

Sighing, O'Brian added, "God help us all and this plan of yours."

With those being his final words, the General left his office to round up his men. He'd have to be secretive about it so as not to draw attention, but Leon trusted him not to get caught until they were already in the air. Very few people were truly in league with Wesker, so most probably wouldn't question O'Brian talking to his men and prepping a helicopter, figuring they were just going to go scout ahead for some mission they didn't know about. Sabotaging the helicopters would be tricky, though, but a few of his men had careers as engineers or were mechanics before the virus swept through the world so they would get it done.

All Leon had to do was figure out what he would say to Alice and pray he didn't get himself and the General killed.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_

**A/N:**_** This chapter was beyond difficult to write. I actually wrote two versions of it - one that leaned towards Alice maybe leaving, and this one that leans towards her maybe staying. I'm not entirely thrilled with how this chapter came out, but I like it more than the other version and feel like I have more leeway and options with further chapters. **_

_**Again, probably not the best chapter I've written, but it's the best I could come up with.  
**_


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: **_**I just want to thank all my regular reviewers for the great comments about the last chapter, because I really wasn't thrilled with it, but I'm so happy you all liked it. Beyond that, just thanks to everyone for all the reviews in general. Like my little tag-line at the end of each chapter says – they keep me motivated! **_

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Since learning late yesterday afternoon that anyone who aided her would be executed, Alice closed herself off almost completely. She still helped the other soldiers fight the infected outside, still helped Becky learn how to survive, but she kept to herself and didn't go searching for people to talk to. She didn't want to risk getting anyone killed and didn't want to get any more attached to people than she already was since she planned to leave within the next few days. The only two people she did talk to were Becky and Jill, but she hadn't told them that she was planning to leave.

Alice couldn't just sit on her ass and do nothing while the world was being torn apart around her by the Red Queen and her viral monsters. There were things she could be doing, people she could be fighting, and facilities she could be burning down to the ground, but Wesker didn't want her doing anything that went against his grand plan. For all intents and purposes, she was his slave, only let out of her prison when he needed her powers for a mission that would give him more control. In his mind, control was the answer to everything, and she was willing to bet that his rant about how he was fighting to save humanity was just a cover and that he was really using the soldiers to do his dirty work. He couldn't be trusted to make the right choices, and if she went against him to do what was right anyone who followed her would be killed. Eventually, Wesker would turn on them all.

Hell, he'd already tried to _eat _her! That was reason enough to get as far from him as possible.

The other reason she had to leave and get away from people was due to her nearly uncontrollable powers. Powers both taken and given back to her by Wesker. If her temper got the better of her, if she had a violent enough nightmare, she could get people killed. Too many people had died because of her already.

Then there was the part she played in destroying the world. Perhaps it was ridiculous of her to blame herself for the hell that had been unleashed, but she felt responsible. Having worked for Umbrella and seeing firsthand some of the abominations being created with the T-Virus but not saying anything for so long… she was just as much to blame as the men who experimented with it in the Hive.

All she could do now was attempt to redeem herself by keeping people safe, and if that meant she had to leave, she would do it. She couldn't continue putting people at risk. She just didn't know exactly where she would go or what she would do once she did leave.

As Leon said, it was hell on Earth.

Prior to meeting Claire and the rest of her convoy, she'd run into towns that were deserted and reclaimed by the environment, and cities that were overrun by the undead. Staying on the move was the only way to survive because the undead and BOWs would inevitably be drawn to signs of life, but fuel had been hard to find in the beginning and soon became next to impossible. People eventually settled down somewhere because their vehicles could go no further, or they died trying to find gas in the cities. But along with the undead, survivors faced the possibility of dying from starvation, dehydration, and infection – the kind born from bacteria getting into a cut or from poor hygiene, not from the T-Virus. Some as simple as the common cold could become a death sentence if not care for properly.

Despite all the odds being stacked against her, she still had to leave. It wasn't necessarily that she wanted to, but that she had to.

She'd steal a helicopter, get to the New York facility where she would then steal one of the vehicles – in the blueprints she'd seen of the place she saw that the clones kept vehicles in a garage on the surface – and would make her way through the states. She'd help what survivors she could find, but she wouldn't stay with anyone. After she did what she could, she would keep moving and hunt down the Red Queen's facilities, burn them to the ground, and somehow find a way to destroy her. Doing it on her own was nearly suicidal, but she didn't see any other choice but to strike out alone.

She just needed to figure out if she would truly be alone, or if she would take Becky with her.

Watching the girl huff and puff beside her while they ran a lap around the cafeteria, Alice sighed.

Becky would come with her if she asked her to, no question, and she wanted to learn how to fight and take care of herself just like Alice, but taking her out into hell felt wrong. Being around Wesker was incredibly dangerous, but the White House was stocked with food, medical supplies, weapons, and by some miracle they still had running water and had a purification system set up for collecting rain. Though Wesker didn't think they had to rush off for more supplies for the armory, soldiers went on supply runs when supplies were reaching critical. Wesker was dangerous, but Becky would be safe with Leon and Jill, and she was sure that Heather and General O'Brian would watch out for her. But a part of her heart wanted to be selfish and take Becky with her.

She loved that little girl. She was the closest thing she had to a real family.

In Umbrella Prime, she saw photos of one of her clones living a happy life with clone-Carlos and Becky. There had been photos of birthdays, holidays, the wedding, all things she could have had if she hadn't worked for Umbrella and hadn't been involved in the apocalypse. Sure, the pictures were fake, but they'd looked real and that clone of herself had memories that made them real before she died.

Alice had never been able that kind of life, and it wasn't fair. None of it was.

Finishing the last lap, the two walked over to the bench they'd claimed and Becky fell into the seat, exhausted.

Panting, she signed, _Are we done?_

Alice knew that for Becky to forgo talking and just sign that she must be completely worn out, she nodded, handing her the canteen, and replied, "Yeah, we're done."

A look of relief washed over her sweaty face and she took a few quick sips of water, remembering not to drink too fast.

Smiling, Alice rubbed her hand up and down the girls back.

Becky was always very eager to learn how to fight, take care and operate weapons, and just learn how to survive in this dangerous world, but she was still just a little girl. She got tired and discouraged easily, and needed constant encouragement. But overall she enjoyed it all, especially judo, which she'd just begun learning. Alice just needed to remember that she was training a little girl, not an adult.

They'd been in the cafeteria exercising for quite a while, longer than they usually did, actually, having arrived at about 10:15am, give or take a few minutes. It was now 12:46pm. Normally, she wouldn't make the little girl work this hard for longer than two hours, but the first half hour in the gym had been spent horsing around.

When Alice wanted to get something done, she wanted to get it done, but Becky had insisted that she had a good idea for a workout. Her idea had been tag.

While she wasn't exactly comfortable screwing around in front of the soldiers working out in the cafeteria, Becky needed a change of pace and had begun complaining that she didn't have anything fun to do. If tag was what she wanted, Alice could play that game for a little while.

And to her surprise, she'd had a lot of fun.

It had been so long since she just let loose and had fun that in no time both her and Becky were laughing. Their little game of tag had actually made the day of some of the soldiers, many of them standing around grinning at them for the first half hour before the game ended. She got the impression that they didn't hear laughter too much anymore. But a little after 11am the soldiers all left the cafeteria when one of their buddies came in and whispered something to them.

Alice was curious about what was going on, but figured she really didn't want to know and had continued with teaching Becky.

"Mommy?" Becky started, signing as well as talking now that she had her breath back. "Can I hang out with Tyler later?"

Tyler O'Brian had quickly become the girl's best friend. He was a little younger and fairly shy, but Becky brought him out of his shell and the two could often be found playing together or helping Heather in the infirmary when Alice was busy. Since he couldn't sign, Becky had taken it upon herself to teach him, and he was a fast learner. He couldn't carry a conversation with her, but he knew a few words and phrases by heart.

"I don't see why not. But I'm going to be busy more of the day so you two will have to stay with Heather or Jill, okay?"

"What about Leon?" she asked curiously.

Alice sighed.

Becky loved Leon like he was her older brother. They didn't spend any noteworthy amounts of time together, but Leon kept an eye on her, checked in regularly to see how she was doing, and was just a good guy around her. Not to mention he'd given her that worn brown leather jacket of his for Christmas a few weeks ago. That gift had made the little girl's whole day. It was far too big for her to wear, but she used it like a blanket just about every night. For her to sleep, she had to have one of Alice's t-shirts and Leon's jacket. Without even one of those items, she couldn't fall asleep. It was a little funny, but also cute, and how much she liked Leon was touching.

Had someone told her the day after arriving at the White House that she would eventually come to accept that Becky liked Leon, and that Alice herself would come to enjoy his company as well, she would have laughed and called them crazy.

Alice hadn't hated him, not really, but she certainly hadn't liked him due to the incident when Becky got taken by the super-Licker in Umbrella Prime. She'd held a grudge against him for a while, but it wasn't until he came by on Christmas with not only gifts for Becky, but a gift for her as well that she finally loosened up and eased up on him just a little bit. He had apologized and explained his reasoning for wanting to leave her on many occasions, but it was that quarter necklace that changed her opinion of him to some degree.

The turning point in their relationship was when she finally came clean about what she was and confessed that she'd killed Angela. Had he judged her or called her a freak or done anything cruel, she wouldn't have ever been able to trust him completely or like him. But he hadn't. He'd listened, asked questions, then comforted her and offered her a place to go if she needed to get away. That was when her thoughts of him became positive, and she's grown to enjoy being around him much more every time they talked. Hell, he was the one person who made her feel somewhat human and welcomed and safe in an unsafe place.

But now Leon was pissed with her because she'd told him that she was going to leave. He told her that they all needed her there, that they were all safer with her there, and he believed that she'd saved more lives with her powers than she killed – not counting the bad guys. All of that was nice to hear, but it wasn't what she needed to hear. From the sound of it, he and everyone else needed her because of _what _she was, not _who_.

For just once, Alice would like to hear that someone wanted her to stick around because of who she was as a person. But no one ever did, not even Carlos. She'd thought for a second yesterday that Leon might actually say something else after demanding that she not go because they all needed her, but he'd said nothing, and that disappointed her more than she liked admitting.

The disappointment she'd felt had been surprising.

Sure, she enjoyed his company, but did she like him to the extent that she would feel that kind of disappointment all because he hadn't said that he wanted her to stay? She'd spent so much time over the years away from people that it was hard for her to explain any emotion she felt, and it frustrated her to no end. All she knew was that she liked being around him, and that she'd been disappointed when he said nothing.

Realizing that she'd yet to answer Becky's question, she replied, signing, "Leon's probably busy too. Besides, Heather and Jill wouldn't mind spend time with you and Tyler."

Frowning, Becky asked, "Is Leon mad at us?"

"No, sweetie," she half-lied, turning to face her on the bench – Leon wasn't angry with Becky, just with Alice. "What makes you think that?"

"I read his lips yesterday when he grabbed your arm. He said not to do something you'll regret," she replied, shifting uneasily, worrying on her lower lip. "And today he hasn't come to see me. You _always _drop me off with Heather in the morning for a while, and Leon _always _comes to say hi to me. Did I do something wrong?"

Alice pulled the girl into a tight hug, rubbing her hand up and down her back.

Despite everything she'd been forced to deal with, Becky was accepting and brave and optimistic. But she was still a child. If someone's demeanor changed and had an impact on Becky's day, she asked if said person was mad because she did something wrong or forgot to do something.

Pulling back to look at her, Alice signed silently, _Leon is not mad at you, I promise. We had an argument, but it had nothing to do with you. He just needs some time to cool down, that's why he hasn't said hi to you yet, okay?_

Sometimes signing but not speaking got through more solidly to Becky.

Sighing, smiling slightly, she nodded, then asked, _What did he mean when he said don't do something you'll regret?_

Alice's chest tightened.

Unable to tell her the truth, she said, "It's nothing you have to worry about right now." Before Becky could question her further, she added, "Let's go take a shower. We both stink."

Sniffing, Becky made a face and dropped the subject.

Neither of them smelled too terrible, both managing to find a few sticks of deodorant buried in what was a free-for-all pile of scavenged clothes, junk, and other random things, such as the quarters she used for ammunition. Alice learned early on that Becky was picky when it came to smells, however, and the girl absolutely hated body odor, both her own and that of others, making her the only kid who religiously took a shower every single day without complaint. The complaints usually came when she had to put off taking a shower for an hour or two.

"Come on, Becky," she said, rising to her feet. "With any luck we'll have the showers all to ourselves."

"I miss bubble baths," Becky commented, following close beside her.

"I miss hot water," Alice retorted. She also missed having a bathroom of her own where she didn't have to worry about some guy pushing his luck and trying to peek around the curtain of the shower stalls.

If she caught Trenton trying to sneak a peek one more time while she was in one of the stalls taking a shower, her and Leon's joke about stringing him up as a punching bag would become fact.

Coming out of the cafeteria, Alice noticed something odd.

Normally the halls were filled with people wandering back and forth from their duties either looking for a meal, cleaning up, working out, or whatever. Noon to 3pm was always a busy time in the bunker. But the halls were virtually empty, and it occurred to her that they'd been the only ones in the cafeteria after those soldiers left around 11am, apart from Jill who had been keeping up a conversation for a while.

Where did everybody go?

Those who were in the halls were whispering back and forth, exchanging looks of shock and horror. Alice caught words like "insane", "suicidal", and "brave" among other things, but one name reached her ears loud and clear.

Leon Kennedy.

Shaking her head, wondering just what the hell he went and did to cause whispering, she grasped Becky's hand, not liking what was going on, and hurried towards the infirmary instead of the showers to drop the girl off with Heather. Something was up and she wanted to know what.

"Mommy, where is everybody?" Becky asked, walking sideways a bit so that she could more easily read Alice's lips.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "But I'm going to drop you off with Heather then go find out."

Alice had to wonder if whatever was going on had anything to do with Jill hovering around her up until half-an-hour ago. Her friend wasn't as subtle as she may think. While Jill did come to her to talk here and there, she usually she didn't come bother her while Alice was working with Becky. Not to mention she didn't up and leave until Leon passed the cafeteria and gave her a nod.

That should have been the first sign that something was going on.

As she neared the infirmary, she heard the very clear voices of Leon, Heather, and Jill, and Heather sounded furious. The old woman could get quite vocal when irritated, but never had Alice heard her start shouting at anyone before, least of all Leon. She sounded legitimately upset.

Alice picked up the pace and stepped into the room, stunned by what she saw.

Heather was crying and Tyler, hugging her waist, looked afraid.

Noticing Alice before anyone else, Heather pushed past Leon and hurried to her. "Alice, please, you have to go get them! Please!"

"Get who? What's going on?" she asked, confused.

"Simon," Heather replied shakily, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Leon… he convinced Simon and his men to destroy the New York facility! They just left! Please, Wesker's going to kill them when they return! You have to do… something, I don't care what!"

Alice gaped, snapping her blue eyes to Leon, hoping to God that there was some kind of misunderstanding. The apologetic, guilty look on his rugged face told her that it was all true.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Alice demanded angrily. Glaring at Jill, she questioned, "Were you in on this?"

"No!" she insisted. "He told me to keep an eye on you while he talked to O'Brian, that's it. If he told me he was going to sentence them to death I'd have told you immediately!"

Judging by how pissed her friend sounded, she was inclined to believe her.

"I didn't sentence anyone to death!" Leon insisted, rushed. Walking over to Alice, he explained hurriedly, "If Wesker gets his hands on those clones, all of us will be killed off eventually. But if we make it impossible for him to get them by destroying the facility, all he'll have is us. He won't be able to afford losing too many people. If he kills the thirteen soldiers O'Brian took with him, he'll lose a lot of valuable men, and if he kills O'Brian, he'll lose everyone because no one will follow him without O'Brian giving the okay. The only one Wesker can afford to kill around here who has anything to do with the imminent attack on that facility is me. I told O'Brian to have his men spread the word that it was my idea and that I'm the one who should be held responsible."

"What the hell is your problem?" Alice asked, completely perplexed as to why he would offer himself up at death's door like he was, as well as angry that he'd kept her in the dark. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"I hope to walk out of this without getting shot, but what happens to me is all on you."

She pursed her lips. "What do you mean?"

Grasping her arms tightly, holding tighter when she tried to yank away from him, he explained, "You need to make Wesker realize that by threatening to execute people who so much as disagree with him he'll cause you to walk out and damn us all."

"This is all about me leaving?" she asked incredulously.

Was he really so desperate for her to stay with everyone at the White House that he'd go to such insane lengths to try to convince her to stay? By the seriousness of his tone, yes, he was that desperate.

Nodding, he continued, "Whether you believe it or not, we need you here with us. You're the only one who can stand up to Wesker and make a difference. Without you, there's no one to challenge him and no way for us to win this war with the Red Queen. Once the war's over with her, we'll have to fight him next, and we definitely need you for that. You're the key component in all major strikes against the Red Queen and future strikes against Wesker, and every single person here is counting on you because they trust you to give a damn about their lives seeing as Wesker doesn't. You say that you have to leave because people die around you and that your abilities make you too dangerous to be around, but if you leave you won't be protection us, you'll be killing us."

Alice glared at him, struggling to make sense of what he was telling her, and then glanced over at Heather.

She was still crying and still upset, but she was nodding as if she understood what Leon was telling Alice and was agreeing with him.

Simply put, Leon hadn't actually sentenced O'Brian and his men to death, just himself, leaving Alice with a choice.

If she didn't stay, Wesker would take complete control of the compound and would eventually kill everyone because one way or another he'd find out how to get his claws on a clone army so that he would have complete loyalty without question. If she did stay, she'd put people at constant risk because of her powers, but she might be able to prevent Wesker from executing people. What Leon was saying made it sound like she could save more lives by staying than leaving.

What pissed her off was that what he was saying and how he was saying it made sense, no matter how much she didn't want it to.

Something must have hinted that what he was saying was getting through her because he gave her a little shake to drag her eyes back to his, and added hopefully, "I've laid the groundwork for you to back Wesker into a corner, Alice. You can make him follow your lead, or at least get him to give you some of his control if he wants to keep you around. We can't –"

"Leon!" Gibson called, running into the room. "Lake's right behind me lookin' for you. He's got some guards with him."

"Shit," Leon swore quietly upon realizing that his time was about up. Thinking quickly for something else to say, looking around for something to use to convince her, his eyes landed on her quarter necklace and he picked it up from her chest, holding it out as far as the chain would allow so she could see it. Lowering his voice so that only she would clearly hear what he was saying, he said icily, "If you don't convince Wesker to ease off and drop his execution rule, I'm a dead man, and so is anyone else who disobeys him. You can leave if you like, but you won't be prolonging anyone's life by doing so. Like I said – you'll kill us all, and I'll be the first casualty. You just remember that if you decided to walk away and let Wesker do as he pleases." Releasing the coin, he let it fall against her chest.

Never had that damn quarter felt so heavy around her neck.

Opening her mouth, she made to snap at him for putting him in the position she was now in, small objects in the room reacting to her raging emotions and lifting into the air, but was cut off by one of her least favorite voices.

"Leon Kennedy," Corporal Lake began, pistol in hand and an armed guard on either side of him at the entrance to the infirmary. "Wesker would like to speak with you. Turn around and put your hands behind your back," he ordered with a proud smirk.

Only he would be thrilled to be dragging Leon to Wesker.

Gritting his teeth, Leon grudgingly complied.

Breathing heavily with fear, Becky looked back and forth between Alice and Leon. "What's going on?" she asked, voice rough and off pitched with her panicked breathing. When Lake approached and restrained Leon's hands behind his back, she darted out of Alice's grasp and locked her arms around his waist. "No, go away!" she screeched at Lake, scared, confused, and angry, removing her arms from Leon's waist long enough to sign.

"Get the fucking brat out of the way!" Lake snapped irritably.

Alice grabbed Becky and tried pulling her away for fear that Lake might try something, but Becky locked her fingers into Leon's belt loops, making it incredibly difficult to pry her off of him.

"Hey, hey, hey," Leon soothed, looking immensely surprised by Becky's action. Dropping to his knees, forcing her to let go of his waist, he assured as convincingly as he could, "I'm going to be all right, I promise. Your mom's going to fix this."

Alice bit her tongue to keep from lashing out at him. That wasn't a fair move, raising Becky's hopes that everything would be okay.

Sniffling, Becky nodded, believing him because she had no reason not to, and backed away quickly into Alice's waiting arms when Lake started towards her in preparation to shove her out of the way.

Grinning sadistically, Lake commented to Leon, "Been waiting to do this for a long time, Kennedy. Only wish I could be the one to put the bullet in your head."

"I bet. Must suck to be nothing more than Wesker's errand boy," retorted Leon, receiving a sharp shove towards the door in response. Halfway out the door, he pleaded over his shouldered, "Don't let me down, Alice."

And then he was gone, taken down the hall to the stairs that would take him to Wesker for punishment, leaving Alice to wonder just how she was going to fix the mess that Leon had created.

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_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: **_**Sorry for the mildly long delay. This chapter was more difficult to write than I'd anticipated.**_

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Silence blanketed the infirmary, everyone in a state of shock in regards to what had just transpired, what was happening, and what was going to happen if Alice didn't act.

How _was_ she going to react to this?

Alice didn't know what to do, and it made her antsy and her telekinetics continued to make little objects rise. Only Heather, Tyler, and the few injured soldiers on cots were stunned by the use of her powers, but still no one said a word.

As far as Alice was concerned, she was dangerous and was someone people should avoid at all costs if they valued their health. Her nightmares could cause her telekinetics to act up and hurt people while she was unaware of what was going on, and her anger, fear, and uncertainty could cause an uncontrollable display of her powers – such as what she was doing now. Unless Wesker loosened her leash and let her go on missions that weren't just ones he approved of she'd be able to work on controlling them in an environment where a little destruction wouldn't be a problem, she would probably end of killing someone. Leaving was a solution to the problems that her powers caused.

But leaving brought with it a new set of problems, something she hadn't considered up until now when she was forced to think further into the consequences of leaving.

If she left, she'd be leaving everyone to deal with Wesker on their own. She'd thought that they could all get by, that if she left no one would push Wesker before the time was right to strike at him, but it seemed as if she were wrong. People were going to rebel either way, and with her gone they'd be at the mercy of their dictator. The destruction of the New York facility would see to it that the soldiers and civilians rebelled because if he held true to his promise to execute those who went against him people would get scared, maybe even try to take him out in a desperate attempt to protect their comrades. The only thing that their efforts would accomplish was death.

Alice slammed her hand against a steal table, causing Becky, Heather, and Tyler to jump, startled. Only Jill and Lieutenant Gibson didn't react to the outburst.

If she stayed, people might die. If she left, people would die. She didn't like either scenario, but she supposed that the only good thing that would come out of the mess was that Wesker wouldn't get his precious clones.

He wouldn't have his clones…

He would only have those who were currently in the White House.

By destroying the facility, people were now at risk of being executed – Leon, to be specific – but not if she made Wesker see that he'd be damning himself in the process. As Leon said, with no clones at his disposal, all the man would have are the soldiers and civilians. And Wesker needed her help if he was to destroy the Red Queen. The moment he started executing people, she'd turn on him then leave, and if she were to leave, he'd be screwed. It was like he said – she was the only one to successfully bond with the T-Virus. Wesker might be an all-powerful asshole who was damn near impossible to kill, but he the virus fought for control. There was a constant war within him and if he gave an inch, the virus would take control.

Alice might struggle to control her powers, but she wasn't afraid that the virus would gain control over her, be she'd changed it, adapted to it.

The Red Queen could sit and wait for the day Wesker fell to the T-Virus, but the virus would never make Alice fall, and thus the Red Queen had a real threat so long as Alice was fighting.

The desired to leave was still strong, but did she really have to rush off like she'd planned? She didn't want to leave, didn't want to leave the friends she'd made and return to a life constantly on the move and alone, but she had to if she was ever going to ensure no one was harmed by her powers unless she managed to learn to control them better. If she could learn to control them she would stay, but if she couldn't then she would leave, but only after she ensured that the people in the compound were safe.

"Heather," Alice began slowly, making up her mind once and for all. "Keep an eye on Becky for me until I get back. Gibson, I'm not taking any chances – stay here and keep them safe until Jill or I get back."

"Will do, Alice," he assured her, taking post at the door to the infirmary.

"Alice..." Heather started but trailed off, looking as worried and afraid as ever.

She put her hand on the old woman's shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm going to take care of this."

Taking a shaky breath, Heather nodded, holding Tyler tightly to her. She then said to her son, "Sweetheart, go keep Becky company in my office. I… I have to suture a cut on one of the soldiers."

"I'm all right ma'am," insisted the soldier with the deep gash, holding a towel to the bleeding wound. "Take your time."

"Nonsense, you'll get an infection if I delay longer than I have."

Alice smiled faintly. Even though she was distraught, Heather was still determined to do her job and keep people in relatively good health.

Sniffling while Heather went to take care of the soldier, Tyler ran his hand under his eyes and held his hand out to Becky.

The little girl looked at him then up at Alice. "I want to go with you."

Kneeling in front of Becky, Alice said, "You stay here, understand? I don't want you to try to follow me."

She looked like she wanted to argue and go with her, but instead she signed pleadingly, "You won't leave, right? You and Leon will come back?"

"We will, I promise." Placing a kiss to her forehead, Alice hoped that she hadn't just lied to the girl.

Trusting that Alice would keep her promise, Becky continued hiccuping slightly as a few tears continued to fall and took Tyler's hand, following him into the office.

Alice watched the two kids for a second before rising and she looked at Jill. She nodded towards the door as she made her way out of the infirmary.

Jill took the hint and followed, coming up beside her and matching her hurried pace, then asked, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to have a little chat with Wesker," she replied tightly. "Stay outside the office, but if there's any sound of trouble I want you to come in. I might need backup."

"You got it." Looking at her with an expression of anger, worry, and curiosity, she asked, "Suppose Leon survives this – what will you do about his little stunt?"

Looking at Jill, she sighed but said nothing, unsure of what she would do if all went well.

Not exactly reassured by her silence, Jill insisted, "This plan of his is insane, but don't be too hard on him, Alice. Convincing you to do something else when you've made up your mind is nearly impossible. This is drastic and I'm all for knocking him upside the head, but he wants you to stay. In his mind, I guess this was the only way to convince you."

Alice glanced at her and shook her head. "He wants me to stay to fight the undead, the Red Queen, and Wesker. _That _is why he wants me to stay."

"I'm not sure which of you is more blind to what goes on in the others head, but whatever," Jill grumbled, frustrating with both her and Leon. "You two need to figure out the complicated friendship of yours on your own."

Though not exactly sure about what Jill meant about her and Leon being blind, but she was right about their friendship being something complicated. On the one hand, being herself with Leon was easy because he didn't give her a hard time about being infected and tried to raise her spirits. But on the other hand, she felt like she was walking on razor blades whenever she was around him because if she didn't tread carefully and said anything too personal or if she allowed her feelings control her words and actions, she'd get hurt. Getting close to people wasn't a good idea for her because those she became close to were always the first to get hurt. It was hard not to be close to Leon, though, as he constantly tried to get through to her.

Either way, he was going on her shit list.

Brave and stupid were two sides of the same kind, but she couldn't figure out which side Leon leaned towards. This plan of his was insane and she didn't exactly approve. What startled her was just how angry she was that he was offering up his life and not someone else's. She didn't want anyone to die, but above all else she didn't want to lose Leon. Had it just been O'Brian and his men she would be angry and fight for them, but she wouldn't be so afraid that she'd fail. If she failed Leon and he was killed… she didn't know what she would do and didn't want to even consider the possibility of walking out of the Oval Office alone. That thought made her ill.

An eerie silence had fallen upon the upper level of the White House and everyone turned to look at her when she and Jill approached Wesker's office, only to find their path blocked by the guard standing post.

"Sorry, ma'am, you can't enter," said the guard, posture fully composed. The only telltale sign of nervousness to be found was his quiet gulping and the bobbing of his Adams apple.

"Move," Alice ordered tightly, in no mood to play nice with the guy and ask politely.

Swallowing again, he shook his head. "In light of the accusations made against Mr. Kennedy, Wesker has barred all entry to his office unless summoned until further notice."

Alice didn't have time for this seeing as there was no telling how long Wesker would wait before putting a bullet through Leon's head – or before he snapped his neck, she couldn't be sure how she would kill him. For all she knew, he might try to consume Leon like he'd done to the men and women on the _Arcadia_.

"I've seen you around – you seem like a good soldier. So, I'm going to be as clear as I can and give you _one _more chance," she warned quietly, taking a menacing step forward until the man was backed up against the door, his composure slipping. "Either get out of my way, or I make you get out of my way."

The whole room tensed and everyone's hand inched towards their firearm, unsure of what exactly was about to go down.

At 5'8, Alice wasn't short, but most of the men around her were 6'0 and taller – such as Leon, who towered over her at 6'4. The man in front of her was no exception. Despite the difference in height, most men knew better than to challenge her. She could out do a man in a fight without much difficulty even before she got her powers. When she told someone to get out of her way, they'd better get out of her way or else they risk getting their teeth knocked out.

After a few tense seconds, the soldier swallowed nervously and nodded up and down quickly before stepping aside, mumbling an apology.

Relieved that she wasn't going to have to kick the guy's ass, she looked at Jill, gave her a nod, and then confidently strode through the door of the office, slamming it shut behind her. The sight in front of her made her realize that had she and the soldier gotten into an altercation, or had he delayed in stepping to the side by a few seconds, there would have been no point in entering the room.

Leon was kneeling on the floor in the center of the room with his hands still restrained behind his back, Wesker standing directly behind him with his pistol aimed at his head, finger on the trigger. Lake stood off to the side, leaning back against a wall with a smug look on his face.

All three men looked in her direction, each wearing a different expression.

Wesker looked like he didn't give a damn, Lake looked shocked and worried as he straightened his posture, and Leon wore a look of pure relief.

"Alice," Wesker greeted coolly, his gun hand unwavering. "Come to for a few final words?"

Tearing her eyes away from Leon, she asked Weaker tightly, "This your way of dealing with a little disobedience?"

He chuckled quietly. "This is beyond disobedience. You of all people should know a traitor when you see one. You did, after all, betray Umbrella and unleash the T-Virus on Raccoon City."

She stiffened, but refused to rise to the bait. She blamed herself for what happened, but she wasn't going to let him make her falter by hurling accusations at her. "Seems to me like he was taking a little initiative," she retorted.

"And now you're here to stand up for him," he observed, smirking. "I must say, I never saw this coming in the beginning giving your alpha personalities. The two of you so hated each other upon returning from Umbrella Prime, yet you've grown past that to care for one another to some noticeably degree. Given the newly evolved friendship, I suppose I should have known that you'd come to beg for his life."

That's what Wesker wanted – for her to beg him not to kill Leon. Doing that man would give him some sort of sick satisfaction that she wasn't about to give.

"Actually," Alice started in a bored tone, giving a carefree shrug. "I really don't care if you kill him or not."

Wesker's composure dropped a fraction and he glanced in her direction, taken aback by her statement.

But of everyone, Leon looked the most bewildered and he stared at her in unmasked confusion. She understood that look – he wanted to know what the hell she was doing, her words having not been what he was expecting at all. Maybe he expected her to plead with Wesker to let him go, or snap that she would leave if he killed him or O'Brian and his men, she really didn't know what he'd expected.

When Wesker looked back down at Leon, she took the chance to flash her friend a very small smile and a wink. The action took effect immediately and he relaxed fractionally, giving her a nod. The confusion was still evident in his blue eyes, but what shown more brightly was the trust he had in her.

Lake caught her smile and wink and frowned, looking back and forth between her and Leon, knowing something was up. She didn't care what he thought. The young man was a pest and Wesker's poster boy. If need be, she'd deal with him

Right now, however, she couldn't deal with him. She had to make sure that her plan didn't backfire.

The last time she lied and stated that she didn't care if someone lived or died was when Cain tried to make her fight Nemesis – Matt. She'd asked why he thought she cared about the others, and he shot Angela's father.

"Is that so?" Wesker asked, his finger tightening over the trigger.

"Yep. Just know that if you do kill him, I'm leaving."

Her words made the sadist loosen his finger on the trigger fractionally and he looked at her, frowning. "Leave? And where might you go?" he asked, curious as well as frustrated that he couldn't just shoot the man on his knees in peace.

"Don't really care. Maybe Florida – always wanted to go there." Walking up to the desk with a calmness she didn't feel, she leaned back against it, crossing her arms over her chest. "You plan on killing O'Brian and his men when they return?"

He sighed, like a father weary of his child's constant pestering, and replied, "Of course. They went against my ruling – punishment is necessary. If one is to maintain order, rules must be enforced."

She nodded slowly. "Yeah, you're right. There have to be rules."

"I'm so pleased you approve," Wesker replied sarcastically, not giving a damn whether she approved or not.

"But how do you plan to replace those men now that you can't count on having the clones with that facility about to be destroyed?" she asked casually. "I'm guessing there isn't a line down at the recruitment office. Not to mention, if you go killing people for disagreeing with you no one will be interested in helping you fight the Red Queen. They might even try to high tail it out of here to save their own skin from the likes of you."

For the first time since she arrived in the room, a look of comprehension and anger flashed across Wesker's face, making his eyes glow red from behind his glasses.

She was getting to him.

"This is how it's going to be," Alice started, dropping the carefree act. "We are going to start doing things my way. I'm going to go out on any mission I desire, we'll make supply runs when a greater number of us demand it, and no one is being executed. All of us whom you consider to be a part of high-command will vote on what gets done, what missions we go on, and everything so that we don't do anything stupid. Also, any chance we have to cripple the Red Queen, we act. There will be no talk about using her facilities or bases for our own personal use unless it's to create a cure for the T-Virus and whatever other viruses are infecting people out there."

"And you expect me to just bend to your will? Hand you the key to my kingdom?" he demanded tightly, yet also amused.

"You need me here fighting with you. Without me, you're fucked. The T-Virus will eat you alive while I'm still thriving, and the Red Queen will be left to rule the world because like it or not, I need the information you have on her and Umbrella. You need me, and I need you," she pointed out, the words leaving behind a foul taste in her mouth. "But you remember that with the clones out of your reach, the only people you have to help you are Leon, Jill, the soldiers, the civilians, and me. You think you can take the loss of Leon and the thirteen soldiers with O'Brian? Think you can afford to lose the loyalty of everyone in this compound if you also kill O'Brian? If you think you can, then by all means, pull the trigger," she insisted, praying to God that he didn't do it and she didn't get Leon killed. "But if you do, I'm out of here and you'll be left to fight this war without me because I won't stand here while you kill people for expressing their opinions and having free will."

"You would just leave?" asked Wesker, muscles in his jaw twitching with anger. "Leave all these men, women, and children here with me? What if I decide to enforce my law of execution after you've gone? Can you live with that?"

No, she couldn't, but he didn't need to know that.

"I might not want these people to get hurt because of you, and I might need your expertise on the Red Queen and Umbrella, but make no mistake – I _will _leave if you give me one reason to," she bluffed, her heart pounding painfully in her chest.

The amused expression fell from Wesker's face and he stared at her, searching her eyes for truth in her words. His face contorted briefly and he took a deep breath. She'd seen that action before, back on the _Arcadia _when he said that he was fighting the T-Virus for control. It made her nervous, but she didn't move and her eyes didn't waver from his behind his glasses.

Antsy, Lake took a few steps forward and snapped angrily at Wesker, "Damn it, Sir, she's fucking with you! She's bluffing! Just shoot Kennedy, and –"

"Silence," Wesker said with deceiving calmness. "I will do as I see fit, and you, Corporal, will _never_ tell me what to do again."

Paling, Lake swallowed and nodded, stepping back as he glared daggers at both Alice and Leon.

Still watching her closely, Wesker asked, "Are you bluffing, Alice? I can't imagine that you would just walk away from all these desperate people like some rebellious child."

That was exactly what she had been going to do before Leon forced her to act.

Shrugging, she replied, "Pull the trigger and find out."

For tense seconds, nothing happened and Alice didn't breathe.

And then, angrier than she'd seen him since arriving in the White House, perhaps angrier than she'd ever seen him, Wesker lowered his gun and stepped towards Lake.

Holding out his hand, he ordered, "Key."

"But, Sir…!"

"Now."

Practically shaking with anger, he pulled the key from his pocket and handed it over.

Wesker walked up to Alice, stopping less than a foot away from her, and held out the key. "We'll play it your way."

Relief washed over her and she grabbed the key, tried pulling it from him, but he held tight.

"For now," he added with a menacing whisper before letting go.

Alice felt as if she could finally breathe again and she hurriedly moved to Leon as he got to his feet. Stepping behind him, she unlocked his restraints and they fell to the floor with a loud thud, leaving behind red indentations in his wrists from being on too tight.

He rubbed his wrists but was more concerned about leaving the room than complaining about Lake's act in tightening the restraints too much.

Neither said a word as they walked out and Jill wisely said nothing, though she did smile in relief at the two before neglecting to follow. The air between Alice and Leon was thick and tense, and Jill knew better than to get in the middle as she followed them.

As it was, Alice was having a hard time keeping herself from slapping Leon across the face. He'd managed to scare her by making her think that he'd be executed, made her fear that she'd fail to convince Wesker to let him go. It was the first time in a very long time that she'd been scared like that, and it pissed her off because that meant she'd let him in more than she'd intended. People who got too close to her got hurt and eventually ended up dead – Matt, Carlos, Luther, and she feared Leon may very well be added to that list.

Reaching the bunker, Jill separated from them to spread the word that everything was okay.

While Jill went in one direction, Alice headed to her room and Leon followed without needing to be asked, fully aware that they needed to have a serious talk about what had just transpired. After they talked she'd make sure that he went to see Becky to put her fears at ease. That was another thing that made her blood boil – he'd scared that little girl half to death. If he wanted to scare Alice, he could, but Becky was off limits. That was going too far.

After a walk that was far too long, they reached her room and stepped inside.

Leon shut the door and silence fell between them, both waiting for the other to say something first. But neither said a word for well over a minute.

When the silence lasted longer than it should have, Leon finally sighed and spoke first, "There was nothing else I could do that would have convinced you to stay. And that facility needed to be destroyed anyways."

"Nothing else you could have done?" she repeated incredulously. "You could have told me what you were planning."

"Would you have seen things any differently?" Leon demanded, walking up to stand directly in front of her. "You're the most stubborn, hard headed woman I've ever met. You would have found a way to make yourself believe that you had to leave, no matter what I said. I needed to take drastic action to make you see that by leaving you're helping no one."

He was probably right, but she wasn't about to admit it, and asked angrily, "You didn't even try to talk to me! You decided to risk O'Brian and his men rather than try! And what about Becky? What in the hell gave you the right to use her against me like that?"

At that, Leon shook his head, looking legitimately sorry. "I didn't intend on her being there when I confronted you about what was going on. I went to Heather to ask that she come with me to find you so that she could watch Becky while I took you to the side, but she'd already heard about what was going on and backed me into a corner. Then you showed up and I didn't have time to get you somewhere where we could talk in private. I _never _intended to scare Becky like that, and I truly am sorry."

She stared at him with a hard expression, still furious with him. But she couldn't deny that he did in fact look incredibly sorry about Becky getting caught in the middle of the mess.

Still bitter and upset about everything, she snapped, "Sorry doesn't cut it, Leon. You went behind my back and put your head on the chopping block!"

"Only because I knew it was the only way to make you see that you can't leave," he argued, frustration and anger rising.

Why was it that people – men in particular – thought it was necessary to give their lives for her or for her mission?

First it was Matt breaking free from Cain's control as Nemesis only to stand in front of the helicopter about to fire on her, shoot a rocket at the helicopter, and die as a result. Then there was Carlos. Sure, he'd already been bitten and it was probably too late to save him, but rather than try to get to the anti-virus in the underground facility back near Vegas he opted to die sooner and get her a way in through the undead surrounding the gate. They'd kissed just before he got in the oil truck to go on his death-drive, and the action did nothing to make her feel better – it made her feel much worse. And lastly was Luther. Perhaps he hadn't intended to die, but he'd come to get her out of Umbrella Prime at the risk of his life and had in fact died.

Now Leon was following their example, though the results had been in his favor, much to her sheer relief.

Continuing, Leon explained, "By offering myself up, I laid the facts out in front of you – if you left, I'd be killed and so would others, but if you stayed I would live and you could protect everyone from Wesker's insane plans and rules."

"Not for me!" Alice practically shouted, ending whatever else he was going to say. Her temper boiled over, causing various items in the room to rise in the air. "You are not going to risk your life for me ever again, do you hear me? I don't care how vital I am to this war. _Never for me_!"

Leon stared at her in silence as though she'd just revealed some unexpected secret to him.

"Which part is it about this that pisses you off so much?" he asked gently but firmly, staring at her intently and wanting to get to the source of her problem. "That I went behind your back and made a drastic decision, that I scared Becky, or that I was willing to die if there was a chance that it would make you stay?"

She held his stare for a few seconds longer before huffing and turning away, needing to busy herself with… something. Finding her guns, she went to them and hastily checked each and every one to make sure they were loaded even though she knew for a fact that they were. They were all clean too, but that didn't stop her from double checking.

Her silence was all the answer he needed and the tall man behind her sighed heavily. Approaching her, his footsteps loud in the small room, he stopped just short of touching her but was so close behind her that she could feel the heat of his chest radiating against her back.

"What, you don't think you deserve to have people risk themselves for you, is that it?" he questioned. When she didn't answer, he let out another sigh of frustration and put his hand on her arm. After a few tugs of persuasion, she relented and turned to face him. A beat passed before he finally admitted, "I didn't just do all of this so that you would stay with all of us because of what you are and your value to the compound. It's a pain in the ass trying to get close to you, but I want you to stay, Alice. You've become a good friend. I'd hate to lose you just after we've started getting along."

Alice stared at him, taken aback by his admission. It was what she'd wanted to hear, but it wasn't what she actually expected to hear. He wanted her to stay for more than what she was and the part she played in the war against the Red Queen and eventually against Wesker. Given how Leon was, she hadn't expected to hear him say that.

When she first arrived, she wanted to know what kind of person Leon was since she'd be working with him so she'd gone to O'Brian and Heather. They hadn't know too much about him at the time, Leon only being in the White House for about a month before coming to recue Alice, but they did give her an idea of what he was all about. He liked things going his way and did things he believed needed to be done, even if he wasn't supposed to – going to O'Brian about the New York facility now being the prime example. The people he'd come with had apparently had to explain Leon's attitude on occasion as he'd been rather cold and incredibly focused on prepping for the strike on Umbrella Prime, stating that he just got like that when there was a mission at hand and that it was nothing personal. He also kept people at arm's length, never divulging anything too personal that would open himself up to vulnerability.

In short, he was an alpha male who liked being in charge and held himself in a certain way to ensure he didn't seem weak to the people following him.

He could say that she was hard to get close to, but the same could be said about him as he'd told her very little about himself while she'd told him a lot about her past and her secrets.

"Being my friend could be hazardous to your health, Leon," she pointed out sadly. "Matt, Carlos, and Luther have all died with me being a significant factor. And now you seem pretty intent on adding yourself to that list."

"I'm not planning to die any time soon," he assured her.

She shrugged glancing away briefly, uncomfortable with admitting no matter how indirectly that she'd been afraid he'd die. "Who does plan to die? But you were going to let Wesker kill you to make me stay, and that _is not_ okay."

Leon sighed, opened his mouth to say something that would fix things, but then closed it, unsure of what he could say.

Alice wasn't even sure what he could say that would make her feel any better about what had just transpired. He'd upset Becky, went behind her back, put his life on the line to get her to stay, forcing her to agree to stay and put people at risk, only to admit that he wanted her to stay on a personal level. It was enough to give her a headache and cause her emotions to bounce around in her head from happiness that he was alive, to anger over what he'd done, and fear that she'd inevitably lose him at some point. She hated feeling so many conflicting emotions at once.

When it became clear that neither knew what else to say, Leon hesitated only momentarily before opening his arms in invitation.

Alice held his eyes for a moment, considering the invitation, before relenting and moving forward into his embrace.

His arms tightened around her immediately, one arm around her waist while other his hand cupped the back of her neck as she pressed her forehead into his shoulder, her one arms locked around his torso.

She'd always been a woman of action, and the simple action of the hug expressed what she wasn't able to say, what they both weren't able to say. He was sorry, she was still angry, but everything all right. For now, at least, she could be normal and they could be safe.

It could have been seconds that passed or it could have been hours, Alice didn't know, but she finally pulled free of his arms with some reluctance and took a step back.

She bit back a smile at his look of disappointment when she stepped back, and explained, "We should go check on Becky. She'll want to know we're both okay."

Realization dawned on him and Leon nodded in agreement. "Yeah, probably a good idea."

Stepping over to the door, the two walked back out into the hallway to go find Becky while Alice went over in her head just what she was going to do now that she was staying. Looking sideways at Leon, she decided that maybe staying, if only for a little longer than she'd planned, wasn't such a bad idea.

* * *

_**Coffee keeps me awake to write, but reviews keep me motivated to write!**_


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